There was a period of about a year and a half where I almost exclusively drank champagne¹ (come to find out this is neither the most financially viable concept nor the best for your reputation: see tagline above). So once I discovered the art and craft of well-made cocktails, making cocktails with champagne seemed a natural marriage. Apparently our forebears agreed seeing as how the Champagne Cocktail is one of the first documented, and certainly one of the longest-living, cocktails. But first, some background on my tastes; I drink champagne on the dry side (anything north of 'Extra Dry' and I jump ship) with my favorite non-special-event-look-we-spent-over-$100-on-this! being Piper-Heidsieck's Brut Cuvee. However, if you use this delight for mixing I will seriously have to come to your house and put the hurt on you. So, for mixing purposes I like to hang in the respectable 'methode Champenoise' $14-$20 range with goodies such as this, this, or this. And, again, I stick with the Brut as I think mixing with anything sweeter than Extra Dry, unless specifically called for as with the Bellini, throws the drink way off. Thus, with my love of the bubbly, and classic cocktails, the wife and I had an evening of fizzy lifting drinks and worked our way through a few champagne-based mixed drinks. The results were lovely.

---

Champagne Cocktail

(Pint bottle of wine for three goblets.)

(Per glass.)

Take 1 lump of sugar.

1 or 2 dashes Angostura bitters.

1 small lump of ice.

Fill the goblet with wine, stir up with a spoon, and serve with a thin piece of twisted lemon peel.

A quart bottle of wine will make six cocktails.

Basically, all roads to the Champagne Cocktail lead from this, the recipe from Jerry Thomas' quinessential book, 'Bar-Tender's Guide or How to Mix Drinks'. These days we typically build this in the champagne glass in the order given; take a sugar cube, douse (well, I douse) with Angostura bitters, place the soaked cube in the flute glass, top with champagne, and voila! For me this is a very simple cocktail that acts as a wonderful palate cleanser which I serve as an apertif before meals, as a morning/brunch drink, or as a light drink between heavier cocktails. In fact, unless we're drinking actual capital-c Champagne, we rarely drink our bubbly straight-up anymore and drink this instead. However, I have two stylistic peculiarities with this drink, and everyone I have served the version above to, as well as my own, have preferred mine. Ok now, staunch purists with the pitchforks, cover your eyes. Done? … no? Seriously, cover them or skip over this section… Still here? Look you rat bastard, I can't help the palpitations you're about to experience so sign this waiver here: ________________________. Did it? Clean your screen afterwards? Good.

I vary the technique above in two ways. First, I place the sugar cube in the bottom of the flute or glass and then douse the sucker with bitters until it's dark brown throughout and there's still puddle to spare at the bottom of the glass (Note: I do vary the amount based on the volume of the glass I'm working with so as to not completely overwhelm the champagne). Next, and this is where it gets ugly – hold on to your socks – , I muddle the cube into oblivion. There, I said it. Hello, my name is Gabriel and I muddle the sugar cube in my Champagne Cocktails. 'Hi Gabriel…' Thanks guys. This process does two things for me; it really brings out the Angostura flavor and the sweetness from the sugar takes much more quickly into the drink to balance it so you get a much more intense set of flavors, and it prevents the champagne from fizzing up as quickly and potentially spilling over, thus reducing the amount of time it takes to pour the glass. That's my experience at least. And, again, I've tried all sorts of variations on technique (place the cube on the Angostura bottle then tip over and count to 3, place the cube in the bottom of the glass and dash from above and pour the champagne without muddling, altering pouring angles, etc. etc.) and everytime I've served another style against this one, people have preferred this technique. So, go crazy folks! Be a rebel! Try it, you might like it. And as long as we're here, check out two other very fine posts and videos regarding the Champagne Cocktail to be found at Erik Flannested's site 'Underhill Lounge' here, and at Drinkboy's 'The Cocktail Spirit' show here. Now, on to the big guns.

---

The French 75 cocktail was named after the famous (or infamous, depending on your bent) French 75mm guns used in WWI and there is some dispute as to whether it is made with gin or cognac/brandy. Ted Haigh, Robert Hess, and Gary Regan all come down on the side of gin, whereas Dale DeGroff's recipe (and wikipedia – though it also mentions 'sugar packets', so let's never speak of it again) lists brandy, though he acknowledges the change as a matter of popular taste. I'm feeling particularly democratic, so, gin it is. I like it better anyways.

French 75²

• 2 oz gin (used Tanqueray)
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• Champagne

Shake all but the champagne in an iced cocktail shaker. Pour into a tall glass (collins, zombie, or Champagne flute). Fill with champagne, stir gently, and garnish with a long, think lemon spiral and a cocktail cherry.

Gin…goooooood, lemon juice and simple syrup…gooooooooood, champagne…gooooooooooooooooood. Together… holy batcrap is that a dry drink! Big guns indeed! Naturally, my wife loved it. For me, t
he dryness of the champagne and the whole 2 ounces of gin fought together and never quite settled down on the tongue leaving the lemon juice and simple syrup to play alone in the background, forlorn and muted. I will say that serving this in a collins glass (I typically use a 13.5 ounce) helps it out a bit. The additional champagne required to top it off seemed to level it out. However, in the future I will adjust the recipe more towards Robert Hess's version here or Gary Regan's which both reduce the other three ingredients against the champagne. This, to me, is an improvement and my heart cries out to serve this in a champagne flute instead of a collins glass (though it is awfully close to a Tom Collins with champagne instead of club soda) which will be more easily achieved with their reduced proportions. And now, let's gamble, or do an Ian Fleming impression, or something…not sure.

---

Casino Royale³

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz fresh orange juice
• 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
• 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• Champagne

Shake all ingredients except the champagne and strain into a chilled martini [sic] glass. Fill with champagne and garnish with an orange peel.

The first thing I notice about this drink is that the appearance isn't much to look at; it's fairly dull and unremarkable. I skipped the orange peel garnish because 1: that was my last orange there in the picture and I didn't want to ruin it (sacrificing for asthetics) and 2: I wasn't sure what he meant by 'peel'. Even in DeGroff's own garnish section of the book everything is referred to as 'zest', either for flaming or as a spiral, so rather than worry about it I skipped it. And, I must say, the drink must not have suffered a bit. The scent of the drink was fresh and citrus-y with the dryness of the champagne and herbals of the maraschino liqueur just peeking through. The drink only suffers from being a little overly sweet, but it is very refreshing and a nice use of champagne in a mixed drink as the effervesence adds to its refreshing quality. This is a good drink to offer those who like sweeter drinks but you just can't get yourself to make them another pina colada, coco loco, or other sickly mixture to save your life. I think a larger cocktail glass assists in drying out the drink a bit and, if possible, should be used. The number of fresh fruits to squeeze and the small proportions of lemon juice and maraschino liqueur make this a bit of a labor-intensive drink so it's not a good party drink unless you want to get stuck behind the bar, but this will go into our private regular rotation for Summer. And, for my wife, so will the French 75, though she will probably reduce the number of those she has in one sitting…wow.

---

Champagne Cocktail Rating:

French 75 Rating: (as made above)

Casino Royale Rating:

1. I'm using the term 'champagne' for sparkling wines as well but I know and appreciate the difference I assure you [↩]
2. from Ted Haigh's 'Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails' [↩]
3. from Dale DeGroff's 'The Craft of the Cocktail' [↩]