New Year Eve Cocktails

New Years even screams for one specific beverage, Champagne.  While a flute of authentic Champagne may have no real substitute, the price tag associated with the good stuff is restricting to those on a budget.  The easiest way to satisfy both your budget, and your guest's desire for real Champagne is Champagne cocktails of course.  A bottle of good sparkling wine (no need to buy real Champagne when you'll just be mixing it) will add a great taste and effervescence to any cocktail.  Below are six cocktails: three classics, and three modern Champagne cocktails.  But before you start popping bottles, remember a few basic tips when dealing with Champagne:

• Always serve Champagne Chilled
• Always serve Champagne in a room temperature flute
• Always twist the bottom of the bottle, not the cork when opening 

Classic Cocktails

Champagne Cocktail

- Champagne
- 1 Sugar Cube
- Angostura Bitters

- Add sugar cup to the bottle of a Champagne flute
- Dash Angostura bitters over sugar until cube is completely soaked
- Top with Champagne
- Garnish with lemon twist

On the odd occasion, you may find a Recipe of the Champagne Cocktail calling for an ounce of Cognac.  While this may not be the traditional why to make the cocktail, it is by not means any less -or more- delicious than the original.

Champagne Cocktail

French 75
- 1.5 oz Gin
- 0.75 oz Lemon Juice
- 0.5 oz Simple Syrup
- Champagne

- Add all ingredients (except Champagne) to cocktail shaker
- Add ice and shake
- Double strain into Champagne flute
- Top with Champagne
- Garnish with long lemon twist

Named after the french 75mm field gun, the French is said to be another one of the many creations from Harry's New York Bar in Paris, with its first recipe in print being published in the classic Savoy Cocktail Book.

While most recipes you come across for the French 75 do call for Gin, occasionally, some recipes insist on Cognac, making for an even more french libation.  Equally satisfying with Cognac, the French 75 is a delicious cocktail no matter the base spirit in play.

French 75

Seelbach
- 1 oz Booker's Bourbon
- 0.5 oz Cointreau
- 7 Dashes Peychaud's Bitters
- 7 Dashes Angostura Bitters
- Champagne

- Add all ingredients (except Champagne) to Champagne flute
- Top with Champagne and gently stir to mix ingredients
- Garnish with orange (or lemon) zest

Seelbach

The Seelbach cocktail was incepted at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville Kentucky around 1917.  Unfortunately, due to the volstead act in 1920, the recipe was lost for over 75 years until it was rediscovered in 1995.  Thankfully, Gerry Regan was able to pry the recipe from a reluctant hotel manager, thus preventing this stunning cocktail from ever being lost in time again.

Modern Libations


Fall's Delight 
- 1.5 oz Apple Cinnamon Infused Vodka *
- 0.5 oz Simple Syrup
- 0.25 oz Acid Phosphate
- 2 Dashes Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters
- Champagne


- Add all ingredients (except Champagne) to mixing glass
- Add ice and stir for 30 seconds
- Strain into Champagne flute
- Top with Champagne and gently stir to mix ingredients

Fall's delight

Garden & Grape
- 1.5 oz Gin
- 0.5 oz Lime Juice
- 0.5 oz Simple Syrup
- 1 Inch Cucumber
- 1 Dash Celery Bitters
- Champagne

- Muddle Cucumber at the bottle of cocktail shaker
- Add all ingredients (except Champagne) to cocktail shaker
- Add ice and shake hard
- Double strain into Champagne flute
- Top with Champagne and gently stir to mix ingredients
- Garnish with cucumber wheel

Garden & Grape

Oasis in Jalisco
- 1 oz Blanco Tequila
- 0.5 oz Strawberry Liqueur
- 0.25 oz Lemon Juice
- 2 Dashes Grapefruit Bitters
- Champagne

- Add all ingredients (except Champagne) to cocktail shaker

- Add ice and shake hard

- Double strain into Champagne flute

- Top with Champagne and gently stir to mix ingredients
- Garnish lemon twist

Oasis in Jalisco

Apple Cinnamon Infused Vodka *
-  750 ml Bottle of Vodka
- 2 Cored Red Apples
- 8 -10 Cinnamon Sticks

- Place all ingredients in an air tight jar
- Allow ingredients to infuse for 1 week, shaking the jar once per day
- After one week, strain vodka through a fine mesh strainer and a coffee filter
 - Bottle, and enjoy