Join thousands of like-minded professionals and cocktail enthusiasts, receive our weekly newsletters and see pages produced by our community for fellow Discerning Drinkers.
This is our favourite Champagne cocktail...come party time, we make lots of these, Sidecar Royales and Old Cubans. But we hadn't noticed the brining bizzo (not specified in the recipe...not sure why not). But my oh my, a rinse of salty, full-flavoured Kalamata brine sends this into seventh heaven. What a blast!
Amazing champagne cocktail. I think, the key is to get the hint of basil right, not too much. I used cava Freixenet Gordon Negro, and it worked well (you can get it in small 20 cl bottles). And no olive brine - since it is not mentioned in the specs - and is amazing without (no comparison).
Second (or third) time making this. The olive brine wash has no purpose unless the olives used have a bold, distinctive (perhaps saline-briny) flavor. First time making this, the basil wasn't apparent, but the second time, a mere shaking in the tin would suffice, unless you like those extra-green flavors of the basil. Damn tasty drink overall and one could get away with reducing (either) the sugar and (or) Campari by a quarter measure.
hey! so happy that you tried it out 3 times :) you have to brine the shit out of the glass and use black and the saltiest olive brine for it. Try to use a spray to coat the glass. You should smell the olive and have the salty taste on your tongue when you do it right.
whenever you are in berlin give us a message on lobb.berlin and i will make a curtain call for you.
We had this at New Year and I tasted it before adding the champagne and it was lovely, so I’ve also made this without the champagne as a slightly bitter beautifully pink lemon daiquiri. A winner either way!
I agree! Based on your review I tried it before adding bubbly (prosecco in my case) and really liked it. Did add a little extra sugar solution, but that’s just my sweet palate. Lovely with the fizz added too. Will definitely make again.
In the video Arash, rinses the glass with something but my German is poor so I can't follow. Anyone know? Even without the rinse, this is a great cocktail. I am definitely in the muddling camp on the basil.