Raspberry wine mingles with champagne in this sexy cocktail.
When Valentine’s Day approaches, the sexiest thing you can serve is a cocktail that stars sparkling wine or champagne. The combination of hearing the cork popping and the tickly bubbles seem to inspire romance.
Whether raspberry makes your heart flutter or you prefer the sophisticated and subtle flavor of roses, you’ll find that both my Raspberry Royale and Vintage Rose cocktails delightful. These are exactly the kind of fun and creative drink recipes you’ll find in my new book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion being released this summer by Clarkson Potter.
Raspberry Royale
Makes 1 cocktail
1 ounce Trader Joe’s Raspberry Wine
4 to 5 ounces chilled champagne or sparkling wine
1 lemon twist
1 fresh or frozen raspberry
Add raspberry wine to a champagne flute. Top with chilled champagne or sparkling wine. Twist the lemon peel over the glass to release the oils and then drop it in. Add the raspberry and serve.
Cafe Chloe infuses simple syrup with organic rose petals to make this syrup.
The Vintage Rose cocktail features a lovely rose-infused simple syrup created in the kitchen of Cafe Chloe in San Diego’s East Village. If you can’t get there to buy your own bottle, then take simple syrup and add rose water from a Middle Eastern grocery until you have a flavor you like. By the way, rose has long been regarded an aphrodisiac; its essence actually helps calm the body.
Vintage Rose Cocktail
Makes 1 cocktail
3/4 ounce rose syrup
4 to 5 ounces chilled sparkling wine or champagne
lemon twist (Meyer if possble)
organic rose petal (optional)
Add the rose syrup to a champagne flute. Top with the sparkling wine. Twist the lemon peel over the glass to release the oils and then drop it int the flute. Add an organic rose petal if you’ve got one handy.
Serve them in your favorite flutes, I’m currently in love with the vintage-y Horta champagne flutes that are a steal in my opinion for $12 apiece from Anthropologie.com.
A twist of Meyer lemon mimics the lemony fragrance of my favorite lavender roses.
