Easy and Elegant Champagne Cocktail

Hey guys, I'm Joe Campanale for eHow.com. Today, we're going to make one of my favorite entertaining cocktails. It's called the Champagne Cocktail. It's really easy to make and it couldn't be more elegant. We start with a sugar cube and for the fast version you just want to drop your sugar cube right into the bottom of your champagne flute. It's OK to use these brown cubes or white ones work just as well. And then you want to add a little bit of Angostura bitters and this creates a really nice balance between the sweetness of the sugar and the bitter of the cube. So, just soak your cube with the bitters and add some champagne. Now if you can afford to use real champagne for it, great. By all means use it. Just don't use the finest one in the house. But I use Prosecco. It's works just as well. And with the bitters and the sugar, you can barely even taste the difference. There your go. So, you just let it froth all the way to the top. If you need how to top it off, you need to just add a little bit of top off. But you see how beautiful that is? All of the sugars really concentrates the bubbles and makes it such a beautiful drink. There it is. That's your classic Champagne Cocktail. Now we're going to make a version that I really really like, inspired by Employees Only bar here in the west village of New York City. At Employees Only they like to start with just a little bit of Grand Marnier or Chambord. So, these are liquors. Grand Marnier is based on orange. But here we use just a little bit of Cambord, about a quarter ounce. Then you top it off with champagne, in our case Prosecco. And now, we're take our sugar cube in a bar spoon. But it's OK if you don't have a bar spoon, to use a teaspoon at home. And just soak that sugar cube and carefully drop that into your drink against the bottom. And then to balance the flavors, you take just a lemon peel, and you want to squeeze your lemon peel over the top and release all of the essential oils. You can even twist it to get a little bit more out of there, and discard the peel. And there it is. You have your classic Champagne Cocktail, and then a great variation with Chambord and a little bit of oil from your lemon rind. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Joe Campanale. Next time you're in New York City, stop by Anfora. Let's have a Champagne Cocktail together. Tune into to eHow.com for more. Cheers.