Review:

Starts bone dry and becomes slightly sweeter as you reach the dissolving cube at the bottom, depending on how briskly you drink of course.

Back in the 1940s, David Embury, an American attorney and amateur bartender, wrote the most succinct instruction on how to make a Classic Champagne Cocktail in his The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks: "This drink should be served in a pre-chilled saucer champagne glass. Place a medium-sized loaf of sugar in the glass and saturate it with Angostura bitters - about 2 dashes. Fill with thoroughly chilled champagne. Add a twist of lemon or orange peel, or both.."

Embury also added his opinion of the drink, "From every point of view, other than cost, this cocktail is a decidedly inferior drink, and no true champagne lover would ever commit the sacrilege of polluting a real vintage champagne by dunking even plain sugar - much less bitters - in it. So if you must... serve this incongruous mess just for the sake of 'putting on the dog,' then, in the name of all that a true lover of the grape holds sacred, use a cheap domestic champagne or even an artificially carbonated white wine."

Tips on how to make
Despite Embury's protestations, "this incongruous mess" of a drink remains, some 70 years later, one of the most popular champagne cocktails and one of the most enduring classics. So it can't be that bad! Like most cocktails, it's all about the quality of ingredients used and how you use them. Follows eight tips for making a perfect Champagne Cocktail:

1. Use a well-chilled, clean glass pre-chilled in a freezer. A flute gives a better drinking experience, but a saucer looks more decadent.

2. As cocktail historian David Wondrich says, "Don't use loose sugar or try to crush the cube - the whole point isn't so much to sweeten the drink as to create bubbles, which the cube will do as it slowly dissolves." I prefer a rustic looking brown sugar cube.

3. Place a small napkin (bevnap) over the glass and place the cube on top of the napkin. Dash the bitters over the cube to soak the surface thoroughly. The napkin handily absorbs excess bitters and then works, with some dexterous finger work, to act as a stylish chute to direct the soaked cube into the glass.

4. Use good quality cognac/brandy and store it in a refrigerator or even freezer prior to use. Consider decanting some into a small bottle for such occasions. Pour a measure of the chilled cognac into the glass over the sugar cube. Room-temperature cognac acts as a heat bomb to wreck this cocktail.

5. "Some prefer an ice cube in theirs, which will (to state the bleeding obvious) prolong the chill at the cost of a certain dilution," again, to quote Wondrich. Ice is unnecessary if the sparkling wine, brandy and glass are well chilled.

6. The dry biscuity and citrus flavour of a good brut champagne/sparkling wine is integral to this cocktail. Tip the glass at a slight angle and pour the chilled wine down the inside of the glass before straightening the glass to finish the pour to create as little foam as possible. The cube will continuously generate bubbles, so a careful pour will help retain CO2 in the drink and add to the drinking experience.

7. As Embury says, "Add a twist of lemon or orange peel, or both." Discard twist(s) after expressing citrus oils.

8. Enjoy with friends. This cocktail is not suited to solo consumption and lends itself to a crowd. Depending on the size of your glasses, expect 6 - 8 servings per bottle of sparkling wine, or stretch to 10 if you're a tightwad.

Variant:

Business Brace - A bartender named John Dougherty won an 1899 New York cocktail competition with a drink named Business Brace that is very similar to a Champagne Cocktail, the only difference being the addition of a splash of sparkling water with the champagne. His win was recorded in an article in the Kansas City Star and is said to have helped drive the popularity of the Champagne Cocktail.

Casino Cocktail - If you replace the bitters with absinthe and float a barspoon of cognac/brandy on top of the drink then the Champagne Cocktail becomes a Casino Cocktail.

Prince of Wales Cocktail - A Prince of Wales cocktail is made in the same way as a Champagne Cocktail but with equal parts Cognac and Grand Marnier liqueur.

Chicago Cocktail - A Chicago Cocktail is made in the same way as the Prince of Wales Cocktail above but with equal parts Cognac and triple sec liqueur.

History:

One of the oldest cocktails, dating back to at least the mid-1800s. The Champagne Cocktail consists of a sugar cube doused in aromatic bitters, dropped into the base of a flute, over which a small measure of brandy is poured before the glass is topped up with champagne - hence the name. Although now often made with other brut sparkling wines, it remains one of the most popular 'champagne' cocktails.

The origins of the Champagne Cocktail are lost in the mists of bartending history, with Wondrich saying it "dates from the Iron Age of American mixology - that final prehistoric period between the invention of the cocktail, whenever that was, and 1862 when the first cocktail book was published."

The first written mention of the Champagne Cocktail appears in the 'Panama in 1855. An Account of the Panama Rail-road, of the cities of Panama and Aspinwall with sketches of life and characters on the Isthmus by Robert Tomes'. Published 1855 in New York by Harper & Brothers. On page 61, Tomes writes, "I profess the belief that drinking Champagne cock-tails[sic] before breakfast, and smoking forty cigars daily, to be an immoderate enjoyment of the good things of this world." On the following page, he handily goes on to describe in some detail how a Champagne Cocktail is made:

What shall I drink?" I asked a friend at my side. "A Champagne cock-tail - the most delicious thing in the world - let me make you one", was his response; and he suited the action to the word. A bottle of prime, sparkling 'Mumm' was brought, a refreshing plateful of crystal ice, fresh from Rockland by the last steamer, and rather a medical looking bottle, upon which was written a direct, brief terms, 'Bitters'. My friend, whose benevolent eyes expressed pity for my sufferings, while his lips were eloquent of prospective alleviation to my-self, and of consciousness, the result of long experience, of his own anticipated enjoyment, pounded the crystal ice, with a series of quick, successive blows, pattered it into the tumblers like a shower of hail, dropping in the bitters, which diffused a glow like that of early sunrise, dashed in the sugar, which somewhat clouded the beautiful prospect, and gave what the artists call a dead tint to the mixture; then out popped the eager 'Mum', and the Champagne cock-tail, thus was perfected, went whirling, roaring, foaming, and flowing down mine and the friendly concocter's thirsty throats.

Panama in 1855. An Account of the Panama Rail-road, of the cities of Panama and Aspinwall with sketches of life and characters on the Isthmus by Robert Tomes, 1910

The above account is interesting as it not only proves that Champagne Cocktails were made before 1855 but also shows that the drink was served in a tumbler over crushed ice and made with aromatic bitters, sugar syrup and champagne. Interestingly there is no mention of brandy - cognac or otherwise.

In the world's first cocktail book, How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant's Companion, published in 1862, Jerry Thomas also omits the brandy commonly used in today's recipes. He also serves in a tumbler over broken (crushed) ice. I don't take the instruction to "Shake well" literally and presume he meant to stir. By the time Thomas wrote the 1887 edition of his book, fashion and the Champagne Cocktail had moved on. He calls for a goblet rather than a tumbler, the "broken ice" has been replaced with a "small lump of ice," and the use of sugar is introduced - much closer to the modern-day Champagne Cocktail.

The other illustrious vintage cocktail books below also omit brandy:

A LA 'BOB' LARIUS, CAPE NOME, ALASKA.
Saturate a cube of sugar with five or six drops of Angostura bitters, place the sugar in a champagne glass with sugar tongs, fill the glass with cold champagne, and serve. Never stir or decorate this beverage.

William Boothby, The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them, 1908

1 lump Sugar in tall, thin glass.
1 small piece Ice.
2 dashes Angostura Bitters.
1 piece twisted Lemon Peel.
Fill up with Champagne.
Stir and serve.

Tom Bullock, The Ideal Bartender, 1917

Put into a wine glass one lump of Sugar, and saturate it with Angostura Bitters. Having added to this 1 lump of Ice, fill the glass with Champagne, squeeze on top a piece of lemon peel, and serve with a slice of orange.

Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930

One lump Sugar
Two dashes Angostura Bitters
One piece Lemon Peel, twisted
Fill glass with chilled Champagne

Albert Stevens Crockett, The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, 1935

Put into a wine glass 1 lump of Sugar, and saturate it with Angostura Bitters. Having added to this 1 lump of Ice and ½ slice of orange, fill the glass with Champagne, squeeze on top a piece of Lemon Peel. A dash of brandy as required.

W. J. Tarling, Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, 1937