Champagne Cocktails

Mixologists around the world make this fizzy, lemony drink with gin, but New Orleans bartenders opt for cognac. It's a refreshing twist on an old classic. 

This puckery drink is prepared with rum and fresh mint like a classic mojito, but New Orleans chef John Besh makes it holiday-worthy by topping it with a splash of Champagne.

This cocktail uses tart, vibrant rhubarb bitters.

Mixologist John Coltharp likes making this Champagne cocktail with herbal, woody Jameson 12-year Irish whiskey (made in Ireland’s County Cork).

For this Champagne cocktail, pitted sweet cherries are soaked in an anise-infused syrup.

Bartender Eric Alperin says that almost all great cocktails involve a few fundamental categories of flavor: strong, sweet, sour and bitter most commonly, plus the outliers floral, smoky and spicy (like cayenne pepper, a new drinks trend right now). The flavor building blocks for this champagne cocktail are: gin (strong), lime juice (sour), simple syrup (sweet), mint (floral).

For parties, Kathy Casey premixes the first four ingredients in large batches (3 parts vodka to 1 part each liqueur, Lillet and lemon juice). When she's ready to pour, she fills a shaker with ice and 3 ounces of the mixture, shakes, strains into a glass and tops with Champagne.

This classic cocktail is ideal for holiday parties and toasts.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's effervescent sour-cherry cocktail calls for yuzu juice (from the bumpy-skinned Japanese citrus fruit) for a citrus kick; a mix of tangerine and lime juices nearly matches yuzu's flavor.

Chef Darren Bartley brandies peaches for this Champagne drink.

Two bracing Italian liqueurs, Cynar and Campari, lend this quirky orange-accented sparkling cocktail a love-it-or-hate-it bitterness.

Chef Shaun Doty and bar manager Jacki Schmidt created Lush as an aperitif, but it’s become a popular nightcap with the hint of elderflower syrup.

Chef Trey Foshee prefers using mirabelle plums for this unusual Champagne cocktail.

Unsweetened coconut water and sliced grapes add a refreshing burst of flavor to this vodka cocktail.

While playing with leftover ingredients one night, Jamie Boudreau combined grappa and peach puree. The mixture was sweet, so he added Aperol, a bitter orange liqueur, then Champagne, resulting in this well-balanced cocktail.

Don't let the name scare you off. Mango is paired with Champagne, tequila and triple sec for a refreshingly delicious cocktail.

This juicy cocktail is a riff on a classic French 75, but instead of using lemon juice, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple swaps in clementine juice. The best part of this drink is that it also makes an excellent mocktail: Use apple cider vinegar and seltzer instead of the gin and Champagne.