The 7 Best Cocktails to Mix for New Year’s Eve Celebrations – The Robb Report

No matter what stage of life you are in, there is one truth: Champagne is a celebration in itself.

Looking at the champagne glass “What’s up?” enough to ask the question. and the sound of the corkscrew makes adults squeal with joy like children at a magic show. You may be in your early 20s, rolling out of bed for Mimosas on Saturday to celebrate the end of the semester, or you may be a titan of industry toasting to record quarterly earnings, but either way, it’s Champagne. soul-reviving.

So what else can we drink for New Year’s Eve? Sparkling wine is the only suitable option. Lucky for us, it turns into cocktails like a dream, adding the flavor and novelty of cocktails with the festive flavor of wine. Whether it’s a light touch like a champagne cocktail or a modified experience like an Old Cuban, here are seven sparkling wine cocktails to ring in the new year.

Death in the afternoon

This cocktail is an Ernest Hemingway original, and to this point we humbly offer some advice: Never follow the author’s cocktail recipes. His version is a stunning double absinthe with almost a full glass of Champagne added, with enough alcohol to calm a bull. Better, we write, to “change these proportions”, make a sparkling wine drink with a little absinthe and the perfect pre-dinner aperitif. Find out how it all started as a joke here, or make your own first with the recipe below:

Combine the ingredients in a coupe or champagne glass. Garnish with lemon zest or nothing at all.

Air mail

Airmail feels modern, but it’s almost as old as airmail itself—airmail (the postal service) made such a splash in culture, it was only a matter of time before the drink was named after it. It’s a riff on the classic French 75 with three changes: rum instead of gin, lime instead of lemon, and honey instead of sugar. It’s a cocktail that’s familiar yet different, refreshing yet deep, we write, “one of those drinks that’s interesting enough to grab your attention but not loud enough to demand it.” Make one for yourself to pair with dinner using the recipe below, or find the best rum to use here.

Shake rum, lime and honey syrup vigorously over ice for 6-10 seconds. Add sparkling wine, then strain into a tall glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wedge or honestly nothing.

French 75

The French 75 is as simple as gin, lemon, sugar and champagne, but it would be more aptly called. based. It’s, we write, “a bright and seductive drink, a top-notch crowd-pleaser, with an understated simplicity that both encourages and rewards experimentation.” Although some of its offspring are good enough to write this article, French 75 has reigned as the king of sparkling wine cocktails for nearly 100 years. Find three of the best versions here, or our favorite to finish off dinner below.

Shake first three ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled flute and top with about 3 oz. chilled champagne.

Old Cuban

Among champagne cocktails, Old Cuba is in a class of its own. While most cocktails with bubbles rely on the sparkling electricity of sparkling wine, the Old Cuban—a batch of aged rum, a dash of lime and mint, sugar and bitters—is a deeper, more seductive affair, we write: “round and toasty. With vanilla and oak.” from the edge of the pool in, as if under a ceiling fan slowly winding through a smoky room. It feels, we admit, both old and Cuban. Find out why it’s neither here, or whip up some after-dinner dishes with the recipe below.

Add all ingredients except wine to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake well for 10-12 seconds and strain into a flute or stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with wine and mint leaves or sprigs.

Bellini

Bellini’s are perfect as a first drink on New Year’s Eve afternoon, leading into the evening. It’s been a mainstay of the Italian cocktail scene since its invention in Venice in the 1940s, and as simple as a Mimosa – three parts peach puree to one part wine – proves to be “bright, light, slightly sweet. the sparkling wine cocktail is only poured a few times”. Find out how much your savings need to drain to drink at Harry’s Bar in Venice here, or make your own with the recipe below.

To start, make sure your peach puree and Prosecco are chilled in the fridge and, if possible, your glasses are frosted. For the easiest result, mix and combine the ingredients in a separate shaker or container. After the bubbles subside, gently pour into chilled juice glasses or flutes and enjoy.

Champagne cocktail

Who could say no? The champagne cocktail is the daddy of them all, immortalized in the first cocktail book in 1862, but modern palates can find it a little confusing. It’s champagne with a dash or two of spiced Angostura Bitters and a sugar cube—essentially an old fashioned, sparkling wine instead of whiskey. And while we might prefer some of the other drinks on this list, none of them say New Year’s Eve quite so strongly. Have a midnight snack with the recipe below, or click here to find out why Prosecco really works better than Champagne.

Saturate the sugar cube with bitterness, about a dash or two. Place a bitter-soaked sugar cube in a coupe, fill with sparkling wine and garnish with a lemon peel.

Mimosa

The mimosa may not win an Oscar for best dinner drink, but it does win the People’s Choice Award year after year. As the simplest sparkling wine cocktail ever made, Mimosas rival the rest, but that convenience and ubiquity can sometimes be frowned upon (ie, if you’ve ever had a Mimosa, you’ve probably had a bad cocktail). That being said, a well-made Mimosa is a lovely and almost wholesome drink, giving you a kiss of juicy sweetness along with just enough “hair of the dog that bit you” to keep that bite from hurting. For a while, at least. Find out which bubbles are the best here, or if you’re just getting out of bed, throw it on with the recipe below:

Pour wine into a champagne flute. Slowly add the juice and enjoy, because you’ve conquered the day and it’s not even noon.