Call me basic, but I love a good glass of bubbles. It’s like someone combined my love of diet soda with white wine, and I am here for it. I’ve been making a lot of champagne cocktails this summer because they make for such refreshing happy hour drinks! Even though we’re heading into colder weather, these drinks will remain staples of our at-home bar. I’m so excited to share with you three of my favorite champagne cocktails. These aren’t groundbreaking recipes by any means, but they sure are delicious! I hope you love them as much as I do.
Aperol Spritz
Last winter, one of my girlfriends introduced me to negronis during a trip to Nashville. I am obsessed with this cocktail, but I think it’s a little heavy during the heat of the summer.
I was still craving that Campari flavor and jonesing for an alternative, which is when I decided to try my first Aperol spritz.
My love affair with this particular champagne cocktail began immediately. How had I never tried one of these delicious concoctions sooner?! When I took my first sip, I felt like Carrie Bradshaw when she first sees those frilly, pink Louboutin’s in the store window. Hello, Lover!
The Aperol spritz is a wine glass full of heaven. The best part? The recipe is super easy. Just don’t use bad-quality bubbles and you, too, can enjoy a love affair with what I’m now calling “my summer negroni.”
Watermelon Mimosa
While I’ll never turn down a mimosa, I don’t love the orange juice + champagne combo. It’s a whole lotta citrus watering down my champagne. At most, I’ll take a little splash of OJ. This summer, I started seeing a lot of watermelon juice in the grocery store. I don’t know if that’s a new thing or if I just never noticed it before. Either way, watermelon juice sounds downright delightful! I started making mimosas with it instead of OJ, and it’s now become one of my favorite champagne cocktails. The recipe, however, is super complicated. 😉
Watermelon Mimosa Recipe
- Pour champagne
- Add watermelon juice to your taste
- Garnish with fruit or herbs, if desired. (I like adding strawberries and basil.)
- Drink. Enjoy. Repeat.
French 75
If I had to describe this champagne cocktail in three words it would be: sophisticated, refreshing and deadly. The combination of champagne and gin can, and will, sneak up on you. (If you know, you know.) So, drink carefully.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to catch a buzz without drinking a large quantity of alcohol, this is your drink. Potency aside, I love a good French 75 because it tastes like fancy, adult lemonade. I’ve tried a few recipes, but I like this one the best. However, I always skip including sugar or simple syrup. I’m not a huge sweet fan. I’d rather save my calories for more champagne. Or carbs.
The next time you aren’t sure what cocktail you’d like to make yourself for happy hour, brunch or just because, I hope you’ll reach for the champagne and mix yourself one of these lovely concoctions. Let me know how you like them! And if you’re thinking you need a good reason to buy or pop champagne, just remember what our friend F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Too much of anything is bad, but too champagne is just right.”
So pop the bottle and enjoy, my friend. You work hard and you deserve it.
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