On New Year's Eve, it is customary to start opening a bottle of champagne as soon as midnight arrives. However, champagne itself does not set the holiday, therefore, especially during the celebration, it is worth diversifying it a bit, making it the basis of delicious and original drinks. A list of the top 10 (along with recipes) is given below.
Champagne cocktail
Place a piece of sugar on the bottom of a chilled champagne glass. Pour 20-30 drops of bitter vodka (preferably Angostura). Fill the glass with dry champagne (or a cheaper alternative - sparkling wine) and place the aromatic lemon zest on a spiral.
Cocktail Air Mail
Ingredients: 60 ml of golden rum, 15 ml of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of honey, 150 ml of dry champagne. Pour all ingredients except champagne into a chilled shaker filled with crushed ice. Mix thoroughly and pour, without straining, into a tall Collins glass. Top up with champagne.
Mimosa
Fill a glass with champagne with 2/3 of freshly squeezed orange juice. Complete with dry champagne.
Jubal Early Punch
Ingredients: 1 cup of very fine sugar, 1 cup of lemon juice, 5 cups of water, 120 ml of dark rum, 1.5 cups of brandy, 1 bottle of dry champagne.
Dissolve sugar in lemon juice and water. Add rum and brandy. Set aside for half an hour in a cool place. Just before serving, pour champagne into the punch and put the ice cubes.
Black velvet
Ingredients: Fermented dark beer (strong type), dry champagne.
Fill Collins’s glass with half dark beer. Then slowly fill it with champagne. Gently mix it all with a plastic stick or straw.
Barbotage Cocktail
Ingredients: 15 ml of brandy, 1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier (or other bitter orange liquor), 120 ml of dry champagne
Cognac (or brandy) and pour Grand Marnier liquor into a bottle of champagne. Complete with dry champagne or good sparkling wine.
Another version of this recipe: Pour 1 teaspoon of grenadine, 15 ml of lemon juice and 30 ml of orange juice into a shaker filled with ice. Shake everything well and strain into a bottle of champagne. Complete with champagne.
Champagne punch
Ingredients: 45 ml of brandy, 45 ml of Cointreau, 1 liter of sparkling water or tonic, 1 orange peel, pineapple slices, orange slices, mint, strawberries.
Fill the punch vase with ice. Pour all the ingredients into it and mix gently. Garnish the punch with slices of pineapple, orange and plenty of fresh mint. Chopped strawberries give the whole taste an even more sophisticated look.
Sparkling aristocratic punch
Ingredients: ½ cup sugar, 1 bottle of dry red wine (preferably Burgundy), 120 ml of brandy, 2 bottles of dry champagne, 1 liter of sparkling water, strawberries, 2 oranges.
In a punch vase, dissolve ½ cup (or less) of sugar in dry red wine. Add brandy and mix everything. Pour champagne and sparkling water. Put a piece of ice in a vase and garnish with strawberries, raspberries or other fruits. Cut the oranges into thin slices and lay on the surface of the punch.
Atomic champagne cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml of vodka, 45 ml of brandy, 1 teaspoon of sherry, 45 ml of dry champagne
Vodka, a mixture of brandy and sherry in a shaker filled with crushed ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add 45-60 ml of chilled champagne.
NOTE. If you use sweet brandy (for example, Spanish), select drier sherry and vice versa - choosing dry cognac, choose sweet sherry.
French 75
Ingredients: 60 ml of dry gin (London Dry Gin), 1 teaspoon of very fine sugar, 15 ml of lemon juice, 150 ml of dry champagne.
Put all the ingredients in a shaker filled with crushed ice. Shake well and strain into a Collins glass half full of crushed ice. Top up with champagne.
