Champagne Cocktail

The Champagne Cocktail is a classic, festive, and elegant drink that’s perfect for New Year’s Eve, Christmas parties, or any celebration that needs toasting.

It’s a simple to make yet elegant drink that starts with champagne, and you add a sugar cube to make it bubble and sweeten the drink, Angostura bitters to warm it up with spices, and a citrus twist to give it a little tartness. I’ve made it sparkle even more with edible glitter to brighten the whole thing up!

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Celebrations

Do you have something to toast? Something to celebrate?

Adding a sugar cube to a sparkling glass of champagne makes a fountain of bubbles that positively sparkles. Top it off with even more sparkles in the form of edible glitter, and you have a sophisticated reason to celebrate.

Brunch, Mother’s Day, baby showers, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, New Year’s Eve, Christmas, holiday parties, Friday night.

Any night becomes a celebration of life when you have this beautiful drink in your hand!

Be sure to buy some edible glitter for your own drinks with my affiliate link. I used silver in my drink, but use your favorite color.

Or, if this is for a baby shower get pink and blue. Or use the wedding colors, or, well you get it. Choose your theme color!

History

This classic cocktail originally appeared in the book “The Bartender’s Guide”. Grab a copy for yourself with my affiliate link.

How to buy champagne

Champagne, with a capital “C”, can only come from the Champagne region in France, which means it usually comes with a high price tag.

However, champagne with a lowercase “c” can come from other areas. This is usually called sparkling wine, and has a much friendlier price tag, and can be just as good.

Now, I’m no champagne snob, but I’ve had some pretty good bottles that were about $5. So, this special drink can be in your budget!

The type of champagne you want will depend on your personal tastes. And you may need to do some taste testing to find what you like best.

“Brut” champagnes are dry and not sweet.

For dry champagne that’s a little sweet, look for “extra dry” or “extra sec” on the label.

“Sec” champagnes are moderately sweet, and “doux” are the sweetest. Often the label will give you a hint as to what’s inside. Moscato is a good sparkling white wine with a soft bubbly quality.

If you have leftover champagne, use a bubble stopper in the bottle immediately and place it in the fridge.

How to serve

Be sure to scroll down to the printable recipe card below for full ingredient amounts and instructions.

Keep the champagne in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it so it’s fresh and bubbly.

The best way to serve this drink is in a champagne flute! They are so pretty, elegant, and they’re designed to preserve carbonation.

If you don’t have any flutes, serve this drink in wine glasses.

Place a sugar cube on a bar spoon and douse with the bitters.

Drop the cube into a chilled Champagne flute or similar glass. Top the cube with edible glitter.

And, don’t stir this drink! Stirring will make the bubbles disappear. In fact, the bubbles will help stir the drink on its own.

What mixes well with champagne?

Champagne is great on its own, but as this drink shows us, it takes well to other flavors.

There are lots of ways to shake this beverage up. Here are some champagne cocktail variations you’ll love!

Mix some Chambord in with your champagne for a raspberry flavored sparkler.

Of course, everyone is familiar with a Mimosa. Just add a splash of orange juice to your champagne cocktail. But don’t stop at OJ, try your favorite fruit juice, like cranberry, lemonade, apple, or strawberry. Just think of all the pretty colors you can come up with!

Speaking of orange, add a splash of Cointreau to your cocktail.

A splash of cognac is another fun twist on the classic.

Party appetizers

This is the perfect drink for serving at New Year’s Eve parties.

Serve them with some delicious New Year’s Eve appetizers like my Pepper jelly cream cheese pinwheels, Blue Cheese with fig & candied pecans, Crab Imperial Appetizers, and Hot Crab Dip.

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