Champagne cocktail

Champagne cocktail

IBA official cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Champagne
Served	Straight up: chilled, without ice
Standard garnish	Orange slice and maraschino cherry
Standard drinkware	Champagne flute
IBA specified ingredients†	9cl Champagne 1cl cognac 2 dashes Angostura bitters 1 sugar cube
Preparation	Add dash of Angostura bitter onto sugar cube and drop it into champagne flute. Add cognac followed by gently pouring chilled champagne. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.
† Champagne cocktail recipe at International Bartenders Association

A champagne cocktail is an alcoholic drink made with sugar, Angostura bitters, Champagne, brandy and a maraschino cherry as a garnish. It is one of the IBA Official Cocktails.

A recipe for the cocktail appears as early as "Professor" Jerry Thomas' Bon Vivant's Companion (1862), which omits the brandy or cognac and is considered to be the "classic" American version. Harry Johnson was one of the bartenders who revved the model by adding other fruit to the mix.

In popular culture

• In the 1933 pre-Code movie The Keyhole, Glenda Farrell's character orders a "Blue Diamond Fizz" at the ship's bar but changes it to "an ordinary Champagne Cocktail" when the bartender doesn't know what she's talking about. She passes herself off as a wealthy socialite with nothing smaller than a $100, so she and the bartender can con a chivalrous male passenger (Allen Jenkins) into paying for her drinks when he tells her he doesn't have change for a bill that big. Once their target leaves, after getting him to buy many more drinks, she demands her share of the profits from the bartender by reminding him of the total, saying, "C'mon give...20 champagne cocktails at 2 bucks a smash and about 30 bucks in tips - and don't be holding out on me or I'll switch him back to whiskey at half a buck a snort".