Monday, March 28, 2011

Champagne Cocktail | 7 down 268 to go

Merriam-Webster’s  3rd definition of sublime: “tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence.”

Thus is the classic Champagne Cocktail.

There’s only 3 parts to this:  5 oz. of Champagne, a sugar cube, and Angostura bitters.  Lemon twist to garnish.  Added individually, either the sugar or the bitters would do violence to this liquid gold, throwing its balance either to the cloying or the acrid.  But added to each other first and then to the Champagne and the effect is as Merriam-Webster describes above.

In culinary circles one often talks about controlling ingredients.  Using one flavor component to counter or constrain another.  That is precisely what this bev is all about.  Start with a sugar cube on a small saucer and place a few drops of bitters on it.  Let the bitters permeate the cube.  Once it is completely orange, drop it into a chilled, empty flute.  Then add the Champagne. Garnish if you so choose for some added brightness.  But frankly, I don’t think it’s necessary.  The cube fizzing from the bottom of the glass is all the decoration needed.

Quelle élégance!


UPDATE:  Champagne-based cocktails are de rigeur at Pride.  As nice as mimosas are, I wanted to bump it up a bit the last two years.  It's amazing what a simple sugar cube can do.

It's been such fun to introduce this to friends who've never heard of/had a Champagne Cocktail before.  Equally fun to watch their noses curl as the sugar gets doused with bitters and then dropped in the golden bubbly.  Ah, those first tentative sips...!  This has been  especially true for M. -- the daughter of dear friends and recently of drinking age. (Tough to admit as we all watched her grow up.  If she's now old enough to drink, that means there's just that much more snow on our roofs!).  M's. step-mom, S., is not a big drinker, but she does like her bolly.  So for S's. birthday this summer we arrived with a bottle of Veuve, a tin of sugar cubes, and a shaker of bitters as a gift.  Fortysomethings and twentysomethings alike enjoyed all the way around.

Ooo, la-la!  La boisson que se déplace!

2 comments:

  1. is it me or have you had too many and your math has been off for the past 2 posts?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What, you think I couldn't've drunk 100 cocktails in a weekend? lol. Thanks for keepin' up on my math. You may want to keep monitoring that going forward. It will continue to be an occupational hazard!

    ReplyDelete

Play nice! Criticism is best when friendly & constructive.