Drinks
Champagne Cocktails
Ring in the new year with these bubbly libations
photo: Margaret Houston
Ingredients
Champagne Cocktail
Bitters (McConnell uses orange, but you can substitute your favorite)
Sugar cube
Champagne
Diamond Fizz
2 oz. gin
1 oz. lemon juice
1 tbsp. powdered sugar
1 egg white
3-4 oz. champagne
Seelbach
1 oz. Old Forester bourbon
1/2 oz. Cointreau liqueur
4 dashes Peychaud's bitters
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Champagne
Old Cuban
1 1/2 oz. aged rum, like Flor de Caña
3/4 oz. lime juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup
4-5 fresh mint leaves
2 dashes Angostura bitters
3 oz. champagne
Preparation
For the Champagne Cocktail:
Douse sugar cube in bitters, drop in the bottom of a coupe glass, and top with champagne. As the drink sits, the sugar will dissolve and release the bitters, changing the flavor.
For the Diamond Fizz:
Place all ingredients but champagne in a shaker glass. Shake without ice to combine the ingredients and emulsify the egg white. Add ice, shake the hell out of it, then shake it some more. Strain mixture into a Collins glass with fresh ice and top with champagne.
For the Seelbach:
Stir together the bourbon, Cointreau, and bitters in a chilled champagne flute. Top with champagne and garnish with a long twist of orange peel.
For the Old Cuban:
In a shaker, combine all ingredients except champagne. Add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne and garnish with a fresh mint sprig.
Champagne Cocktail and Diamond Fizz cocktail recipes from Jayce McConnell of Edmund’s Oast in Charleston, South Carolina
Seelbach cocktail recipe from Blake Borah of the Oakroom at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky
Old Cuban cocktail recipe from Jerry Slater, formerly of H. Harper Station, in Atlanta, Georgia
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