Whether You Want to Splurge or Save, Here’s How to Make a Cocktail That Sparkles

This delicious drink evolves from sip to sip. Carl Tremblay/TCA

By Lan Lam From America’s Test Kitchen

We started our Champagne cocktail with an Angostura bitters-soaked sugar cube in the bottom of a chilled flute. Then we filled the glass with Champagne and garnished it with a lemon twist. These four ingredients interacted to form a cocktail that evolved from sip to sip.

Bursting bubbles aromatized lemon oils from the twist to make the first sip bright and citrusy. Then the Champagne’s flavors and aromas took over, with whispers of warm spices and orange hinting at what was to come.

As the sugar cube dissolved, it created a bitters-infused syrup. Because this syrup was denser than the wine, it stayed at the bottom of the flute. The final sips delivered the flavors of the Angostura and balanced the bitters with the wine’s acidity and the sugar’s sweetness.

Champagne Cocktail

Makes 1 cocktail

• 1 sugar cube
• 1/4 teaspoon Angostura bitters
• 5 1/2 fluid ounces (1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons) Champagne, chilled
• 1 lemon twist

1. Place sugar cube in a small bowl. Add bitters to sugar cube. Transfer soaked sugar cube to chilled champagne flute. Add Champagne and garnish with lemon twist. Serve.

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