Add Sparkle to Your Celebration with This Easy Champagne Cocktail!

For a festive holiday drink recipe or to add some sparkle to any brunch or happy hour, try this easy Champagne Cocktail recipe. It’s a showy yet remarkably simple low-alcohol cocktail idea.

Cheers to a festive drink recipe that won’t leave you with a headache tomorrow! Many mixed drink recipes clock in at a high ABV (alcohol by volume). This Champagne Cocktail, in contrast, is essentially dressed-up sparkling wine; naturally one of the least boozy wine options available.

Still festive, beautiful, and tasty yet easy to make and to enjoy, this Champagne Cocktail is destined to become your signature drink recipe. It’s already become mine.

Recipe ingredients

Ingredient notes

• Angostura bitters: This classic cocktail ingredient can be found at many liquor stores, wine shops, large supermarkets, and online.
• Dry sparkling wine: Yes, even though this is called a “Champagne Cocktail,” it can be made with nearly any sparkling wine that errs on the “brut champagne” (dry) side of the sweetness spectrum. See “Recipe FAQs” below for more about the different varieties of sparkling wine.
• Sugar cube: Simple syrup or honey will work fine as a substitute.
• Starfruit: A lemon twist is the traditional garnish on a classic Champagne Cocktail, but I love how unique a festive slice of fresh starfruit looks. Or, substitute a citrus twist.

Step-by-step instructions

1. To the bottom of a champagne flute, add sugar cube. Sprinkle sugar cube with 5 dashes of Angostura bitters.

Top with a pour of dry sparkling wine and garnish with a starfruit slice.

Recipe tips and variations

• Yield: This recipe makes 1 cocktail. Each full bottle of sparkling wine should yield about 5 cocktails.
• Glassware: Champagne Cocktails are best prepared in Champagne flutes or other stemmed glassware, such as a coupe glass.
• Big batch: Champagne cocktails are best prepared individually so the bubbles remains fresh. For each bottle of Champagne, you can make about 5 cocktails, so stock up accordingly.
• Bellini: Omit the sugar cube and bitters and reduce Champagne to 3 ounces. Add 2 ½ ounces peach nectar or juice and garnish with a peach slice.
• Kir Royale: Omit the sugar cube and bitters and add ½ ounce (1 tbsp) creme de cassis. Garnish with a lemon slice or fresh blackberries.
• Classic Mimosa: Omit the sugar cube and bitters and reduce Champagne to 3 ounces. Add 3 ounces orange juice and garnish with an orange slice.