Champagne itself nearly 325 years old. Our precious monk Dom Perignon invented it in 1697. After that day, we couldn’t stop the champagne itself and its cocktail.

Our topic today is the Classic Champagne Cocktail. It is basically a combination of sugar, champagne and bitters. And its origin dates back to the mid-century 1800s. This cocktail is one of the 77 IBA approved cocktails, so besides the name, its a real classic. We can think it has blue verified account checkmark.

Our first official hearing or reading of this cocktail was in a book called Panama in 1855 by Robert Tomes (Harper & Brothers Publishing House) in 1855. In page 62, there is a detailed description of how to make this cocktail. You can find it below.

The important point in here is the book mentioned the glass as a tumbler, not a flute and said crushed ice without any drops of cognac. Because today we make it with perfectly chilled flute glass without any ice.

In the cocktail history, “How to Mix Drinks or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion” by Jerry Thomas in 1862 is considered to be the first cocktail recipe book . We can see this cocktail in this book. (see page 110). We have seen that tumbler glasses and crushed ice used for the cocktail. At that point, there seems to be a confusion here, because the page says to shake well, but actually, this is a built-in cocktail. In addition, carbonated drinks such as soda, soda, champagne are not shaken.

In Google Books the 1862 version is free you can find it from here: How to Mix Drinks.

However, in the version of this book published in 1887, we see that the tumbler glass was replaced by a goblet and the crushed ice with a piece of ice.

On page 23 of Ideal Bartender, written by Tom Bullock in 1917, we see that lemon peel was added to this cocktail as a garnish.

In 1889, John Dougherty, a New York bartender, added brandy to this cocktail and won the competition. After this date, we also see brandy and cognac in some recipes.

Here the recipe;