contemporary · built
Champagne Cocktail recipe
A sugar cube soaked in bitters and cognac, lifted with Champagne.
A Champagne Cocktail is 90 ml (89.1 g) Champagne, 10 ml (9.4 g) Cognac and 1 ml (1 g) Angostura Bitters, built and served in a wine glass. It pours to about 101 ml before ice, at roughly 15.1% ABV. Weighing the ingredients instead of measuring them is what keeps the balance identical from one round to the next.
- Glasswine glass
- Methodbuilt
- Pour volume101 ml
- Strength (est.)15.1% ABV
- Time2 min
Champagne Cocktail ingredients — in millilitres and grams
Grams are what the PourPilot coaster actually targets. They are not the same as the millilitres: a spirit is lighter than water, a syrup is heavier, so 30 ml of one is never 30 g. The right-hand column is the density we use, in grams per millilitre.
| Ingredient | Volume | Weight | g/ml | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champagne | 90 ml | 89.1 g | 0.99 | Weighed by the coaster |
| Cognac | 10 ml | 9.4 g | 0.94 | Weighed by the coaster |
| Angostura Bitters | 1 ml | — | 0.98 | 2 dashes on a sugar cube |
How to make a Champagne Cocktail
- Set your wine glass on the scale (or on the PourPilot coaster) and zero it. Every measurement below is given in millilitres and in grams, so you can use either.
- Fill the wine glass with fresh ice.
- Build Cognac straight into the glass, weighing each pour.
- Top with Champagne and stir once, gently, from the bottom up.
- Finish with 2 dashes on a sugar cube of Angostura Bitters.
Champagne Cocktail: the questions people actually ask
How strong is a Champagne Cocktail?
Roughly 15.1% ABV as poured, before the ice dilutes it — typically another 15–25% water by the time you finish stirring or shaking. Medium strength. About the same as a fortified wine, poured short.
What glass should a Champagne Cocktail be served in?
A wine glass. Fill it with fresh ice, not the ice you mixed with.
Can I make a Champagne Cocktail without a jigger?
Yes — that is what the gram column is for. Put the glass or tin on a kitchen scale, zero it, and pour to the weight. It is more accurate than a jigger because nothing is left clinging to the inside of the measure. The PourPilot coaster does the same thing without you having to watch a display: it lights up as you approach the target and tells you when to stop.
Why are some ingredients not weighed?
Dashes of bitters and rinses are too small to weigh reliably — a dash is roughly 0.8 ml, well inside the noise of any bar scale. Count them instead. Everything else in this Champagne Cocktail is weighed.
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