Champagne Cocktail

Champagne Cocktail Story

Created in 1850 but first appearing in print in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 bar guide How to Mix Drinks, the Champagne Cocktail is unique from other old fashioned cocktails in that it doesn’t rely on any additional spirits for fortification, nor water for dilution. The recipe has gone virtually unchanged since that publication, however, just like the Old Fashioned, it’s a cocktail that can be adjusted to taste, whether it’s served on ice or up, garnished with a lemon twist or not. But where aesthetics are concerned, one method of preparing this cocktail trumps all others: soaking a sugar cube in Angostura Bitters and then dropping it in a flute of champagne, allowing it to sink to the bottom and slowly dissolve while the drink changes color, imbues the drink with a truly mystifying display of elegance.