20 best Champagne Cocktails

Words by Simon Difford

Photography by Dan Malpass

20 best Champagne Cocktails image 1

Cocktails are intrinsically decadent, but those with champagne are also lavish, invigorating and celebratory. Champagne cocktails are condemned by some as being a waste of good fizz. However, the acidity of brut champagne and other similar sparkling wines can balance rich flavoursome liqueurs while its effervescence enlivens cocktails. Champagne cocktails can be great...

ency 32 image
Air Mail
Basically, an orange daiquiri served long over ice, sweetened with honey rather than sugar and topped with champagne. Said to be named due to a reference to airmail being the quickest way of getting a letter from A to B.

ency 12 image
Barracuda
There's a touch of Tiki to this champagne-charged classic from the 1977 book Jones' Complete Barguide.

ency 20 image
Bling! Bling!
A shot sized treat with vodka, fresh raspberries, lime juice, sugar and champagne.

ency 88 image
Carlton Banks
Cognac, cherry brandy, orange biters, and Boker's bitters, stirred and strained into a coupe, crowned with champagne.

ency 86 image
Champagne Cocktail
No list of champagne cocktails would be complete without mention of the venerable Champagne Cocktail, one of the oldest known cocktails and with its mixture of cognac and champagne, one of the most luxurious.

ency 18 image
Champagne Julep
Lower in strength than most old-school Julep cocktails, champagne adds a zing, if not a sparkle.

ency 95 image
Champagne Piña Colada
Deliciously creamy pineapple and coconut enlivened by champagne with rum notes shining through.

ency 29 image
Champagne Snowball
Snowballs are popular a Christmas cocktail in the UK but a generous splash of champagne extends this silky cocktail into being equally suited to New Years Eve.

ency 78 image
Curtain Call
A Bacardi Legacy Competition winning cocktail with basil leaves, light rum, lemon juice, sugar syrup and Campari, topped with champagne.

ency 56 image
Death in the Afternoon
Created by Ernest Hemingway. This absinthe and champagne cocktail shares its name with one of the author's books.

ency 84 image
French 125
A cognac-based version of the French 75 which first appeared in the 1977 book Jones' Complete Barguide.

ency 47 image
French 75
This fresh, clean and sophisticated cocktail probably originates in London during the First World War, although this flute glass serve dates from the 1980s/90s.

ency 17 image
French 75 (Difford's recipe)
This Collins glass French 75 serve is more in keeping with the original and fittingly resembles the shape of a 75mm cartridge.

ency 44 image
French Spritz
This aperitif-style cocktail perfectly fits its name. That said, fans of Italian fizz will be interested to learn that this Spritz recipe also works well when made with prosecco in place of champagne.

ency 41 image
Honey Bee Mine
Honey and vanilla laced with white rum and enlivened with champagne. Originally made for Valentine's Day - hence the name.

ency 45 image
Jayne Mansfield
Named after the Hollywood actress, the rum laced champagne cocktail is flavoured and made red by fresh strawberries and crème de fraise liqueur.

ency 23 image
Millionaire's Martini
A Fifty-Fifty Dry Martini charged with a splash of Champagne to create a suitably opulent, and dangerously quaffable Dry Martini.

ency 14 image
Old Cuban
Created in 2004 by Audrey Saunders this aged rum-based cocktail had become a contemporary classic. Best described as a minty daiquiri with champagne sparkle.

ency 29 image
Pisco Punch (Difford's Recipe)
My interpretation of the venerable Pisco Punch is enlivened by both champagne and a touch of clove spice.

ency 13 image
Royal Mojito
Champagne invigorates and adds complexity to the Cuban minty classic. Also appropriately known as a "Luxury Mojito".

ency 36 image