Cocktails of the week - Classic Champagne, Classic's Classic, JD Classic

We had a few bottles of champagne left over from New Year's (yeah, we're not quite the same partiers we used to be; but then again, who is?), so I figured we'd try a couple of the champagne cocktails. My new book, New Classic Cocktails, had a number of good sounding ones, so we tried those.

Classic Champagne Cocktail

• 1 sugar cube
• 1-2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 1 oz brandy (Hennessy again
• 4 oz chilled Champagne (in this case, Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut sparkling wine)
• orange twist to decorate

Put the sugar cube into a chilled cocktail or Champagne glass and saturate with the bitters. Add the brandy, then fill the glass with the chilled Champagne. Decorate with the orange twist.

A strange concoction, to be sure. Who would've thought to put a sugar cube into champagne? And soak it in bitters, as well? But it worked very well, and we both enjoyed it. I was postulating that it was invented by someone who wanted to mask the taste of a lower end champagne, but the Roederer Estate held its own pretty well.

The Classic's Classic

• 1 sugar cube
• 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 1 oz Grand Marnier
• 4 oz of champagne (same Roederer Estate)

This was the "twist" recipe from the book (remember, it has a classic and a "with a twist" variation). You make it the same way, only it has an orange-y flavor to it. This worked out so well, I decided to twist the twist:

JD Classic

• 1 sugar cube
• 2 dashes of orange bitters
• 1 oz Grand Marnier
• 4 oz of champagne

Make it the same way again, only soak the sugar cube in orange bitters. This would, I think, work out very well. But I got too enthralled with playing Serious Sam II that I forgot to take the champagne out of the freezer where I had put it to chill some more :-( So we ended up with a slush! It actually worked out pretty well, and I think I'd like to try this recipe again. I'm a big fan of orange bitters with the orange-y liqueurs like Grand Marnier and Cointreau.

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