The nog may have a place at your holiday table, but if you're feeling like Humpty Dumpty after guzzling it at countless parties, it's time to go bubbly. No holiday get-together is complete without champagne, so why not mix it up in a cocktail? It keeps things interesting (and less expensive). Best of all, you can use up the last bits of booze for a morning-after mimosa concoction.
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| Kir Royale |
French 75 at the Oak Room
1 oz. gin
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. simple syrup
Champagne
Twist of lemon
In a martini shaker, combine the first three ingredients together with ice and shake. Strain into a flute glass and top with champagne and a lemon twist.
Pear Crisps at Rouge Tomate by Rainlove Lampariello
½ oz. Montecristo rum
½ oz. agave syrup
2 oz. pear-spiced puree (recipe below)
1 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. champagne
To make the pear puree you'll need:
1 quart fresh pear juice
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
½ tsp. Vitamin C powder
A pinch of fresh cinnamon
Mix all of the ingredients together (except the Champagne) in a martini shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a martini glass, top off with Champagne and garnish with a pear wheel.
Grant's Royale at Hudson River Café
Half a lime
1 ½ oz. St. Germain Elderflower liquor
Champagne
Cut the lime into four wedges and muddle. Pour the Elderflower liquor in a shaker, add ice, and shake up. Fill an empty glass with fresh ice and strain the contents of the shaker into the glass. Fill with champagne.
Organic Chai Collins from Counter
2 oz. Bluecoat American Gin
¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. rich chai-infused simple syrup
2 oz. Herman Weimer Sparkling Blanc de Noir
Whole nutmeg
Cinnamon stick
Combine the first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake and strain into a champagne flute. Top with Blanc de Noir and garnish with fresh grated nutmeg and a cinnamon stick.
Black Velvet (A Shecky's favorite!)
One bottle champagne
3 12-oz. bottles Guinness Stout
Tilt a chilled champagne flute and fill almost halfway with cold champagne. After the foam subsides, slowly add an equal part cold Guinness over the back of a spoon so that the two alcohols separate.
Kir Royale
Champagne
¼ oz. Chambord
Twist of lemon
One of the easiest champagne cocktails to make, the Kir Royale still requires some skill. For a more visual effect, pour champagne in a flute and slowly pour the Chambord in so that it pools at the bottom of the glass. Or, if you prefer the flavor of Chambord throughout, pour that in first and then add the champagne (see above). Either way, the cocktail should look pale pink, not bright pink, or it will be too sweet. Top with a lemon twist.
~Lisa Raphael
