9x champagne cocktails

Your Christmas will be absolutely fabulous with these festive champagne cocktails. They’re perfect for brunch, aperitifs or dessert. And for all those in-between moments. They’re best mixed with a true brut champagne, but any budget bubbly will do the trick. Try one, or just go ahead and try them all. Bubbly Christmas!

9 champagne cocktails

#1 STOLI-BOLLI: the AbFab Cocktail

This cocktail comes from Absolutely Fabulous, in which Patsy and Eddie spontaneously mix their 2 favorite drinks. Super simple, just champagne with vodka. But of course, the real stuff.
“Patsy darling, do you want a cocktail? Bolli? Stoli? Stoli Bolli?” (Eddie, Absolutely Fabulous)

Ingredients:
1 part vodka (Stolichnaya)
3 parts champagne (Bollinger)
Pour the vodka into a flute and top up with champagne.

#2 KIR ROYAL

Kir royal is the classy upgrade of the regular Kir (white wine with crème de cassis). For kir royal, the white wine is replaced with festive champagne.

Ingredients:
3 parts champagne
½ part crème de cassis
raspberries / redcurrants / strawberry / sprig of rosemary (optional)
Pour the crème de cassis into a flute or champagne coupe and top up with champagne. Stir briefly to combine, or add a stirrer. Garnish with a raspberry, strawberry or redcurrants and, optionally, a sprig of rosemary.

#3 CHAMPAGNE MOJITO

The easygoing swing of a Cuban mojito, with the classy French touch of champagne.

Ingredients:
3 parts champagne
½ part rum
1 lemon wedge
1 tablespoon sugar syrup
2 sprigs of mint
optional: crushed ice
Squeeze the lemon into a flute or highball glass. Mix it with the sugar syrup, rum and leaves from 1 sprig of mint. Muddle everything. Add some crushed ice if desired and top with champagne. Garnish with a sprig of mint and lime slice and serve with a straw.

#4 BLOODY MIMOSA

The classic mix of orange juice and champagne gets an extra twist from colorful blood orange and a spicy splash of triple sec.

Ingredients:
1 part (blood) orange juice
½ part triple sec
3 parts champagne
strip of orange peel (using a vegetable peeler)
Pour the (blood) orange juice and triple sec into a champagne glass and top up with champagne. Garnish with the orange peel.

#5 FRENCH 75

This cocktail is said to have been named after the 75mm Howitzer field gun used by the French and Americans in the First World War. A French 75 feels like being hit by one of those cannonballs.

Ingredients:
1½ parts gin
½ part lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar syrup
3 parts champagne
crushed ice
strip of lemon peel (using a vegetable peeler)
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup and shake for about 15 seconds. Pour into a flute or highball glass and top with champagne. Stir carefully and garnish with the lemon peel.

#6 BLACK VELVET

For the naughty beer drinker in need of a silky-smooth Christmas feeling.

Ingredients:
2 parts Guinness
2 parts champagne
Fill half a highball glass with Guinness and top up with champagne. With this cocktail, a frothy head is actually desirable for the festive effect.

#7 GINGER SPARKLER

A fresh, bittersweet cocktail to spice up the Christmas spirit a little.

Ingredients (for 7 to 8 glasses):
2 teaspoons peeled & finely grated fresh ginger
½ cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 bottle champagne
In a small saucepan, cook the ginger, sugar and 1/4 cup water until syrupy (about 2 minutes). Pour the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl to remove the solids. Then pour 1 tablespoon of syrup into each highball glass and top up with champagne. Stir gently. Garnish with a ball of stem ginger.

#8 DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON / THE HEMINGWAY

This decadent and hallucinogenic cocktail is said to have been invented by Hemingway himself.
“Pour one jigger absinthe into a champagne glass. Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.” (Ernest Hemingway)

Ingredients:
1½ parts absinthe
3 parts champagne
Pour the absinthe into a flute or champagne coupe and top with champagne. If you don’t have absinthe (or prefer less than 70% alcohol), any other anise-flavored drink such as Pernod or Ricard offers a subtler alternative.

#9 BLACK PEARL COFFEE CHAMPAGNE

The Pirates of the Caribbean cocktail with a sweet cherry touch.

Ingredients:
1 part cognac
1 part coffee liqueur
3 parts champagne
1 Maraschino cherry / candied cherry
1 coffee bean
small scoop of crushed ice
Place the cherry in the bottom of a flute. Shake the cognac and coffee liqueur with the ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour over the cherry and carefully top with champagne (for a layered effect). Garnish with a coffee bean.

Useful Cocktail Facts:
* Equipment: flute, coupe, highball glass, cocktail shaker, muddler
* Any other bubbly can be used instead of champagne
* For a sweeter cocktail, choose demi-sec instead of brut
* 1 part = 30 ml

Read also:

• Crémant: the best budget buy for Champagne lovers
• This champagne cake is the most delicious cake you’ll ever taste (and it’s available to buy in the Netherlands)
• Recipe: cotton candy champagne cocktail