Now that Christmas is behind us, I’ve started thinking about New Year’s Eve. We’re having some friends over and I want a way to make the evening special. I’ve decided to pepper the night with fun and easy Champagne Cocktails. I’ve come up with six easy Champagne Cocktails that together only use nine ingredients. I’ll therefore be able to mix up all these tasty drinks with very little fuss either before the party when getting my ingredients ready or during the party when the drink-making has begun.

Each day from today until the 31st I’ll be giving you one of these six easy champagne cocktail recipes. So be sure to follow along by liking Cook the Story on Facebook and subscribe by email to get the recipes sent right to your inbox.

Here are the nine simple ingredients that you’ll need to make these easy champagne cocktails:

1. Lemons
2. Frozen cranberries (get a bag or two of fresh ones and stick them in your freezer)
3. Oranges (one recipe, the one I’m giving today, calls for freshly squeezed OJ, which you will use the oranges for. But if you want, tack on an extra ingredient to your grocery list and get some store-bought “Not From Concentrate” Pulp-Free OJ. It’s nearly as good and will save you a bit of time
4. Orange liqueur (my favorite is Cointreau but you can also use Grand Marnier or Triple Sec)
5. Grenadine (a sweet red syrup sold in most grocery stores. Mine is sold near the wine section. In our old Toronto grocery store it was sold near the bottled water where there was a selection of syrups for adding to drinks).
6. Stout beer (like Guiness)
7. Gin
8. Brandy
9. And of course, some sparkling wine. No need to spend a truckload on the fancy stuff. Some nice bottles of the Italian version of Champagne, called Prosecco (around $12/bottle), or the Spanish version, called Cava (sometimes as low as $10), or even some dry bubbly from California or Australia will work. My best bit of advice is to go now and buy a bottle of what you think you’d like to have at your party. Chill it really really well and then open it up and taste. For the cocktails you want something dry, not sweet. But it’s o.k. if it has some background fruit flavors. Most importantly, make sure that you like it. If you do, then you’ll like your cocktails too.

And here is the list of cocktails (links will be added as the recipes are posted):

• The Pink French 75
• The Poinsettia
• The Black Velvet
• The Barbowhatever
• Sparkling Sangria

And without further ado, here’s Easy Champagne Cocktail #1: Paint Your Mimosa Red

I’ve started with this cocktail because it is also great for a festive brunch. You can totally serve it in the evening at your New Year’s Party but it will work just as well if you’re having friends over during the day this week.

Paint Your Mimosa Red

 

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Prep time

2 mins

Total time

2 mins

 

This drink is just a little twist on the classic Mimosa. You’ve still got your orange and bubbly in there, but there’s also some extra sweetness (and redness!) from the grenadine and a bit of puckering lemon to balance it out.

Author: Christine

Recipe type: Beverage

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• ⅓ of a cup of dry sparkling wine
• ⅓ of a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice (or store-bought “Not From Concentrate” OJ, best to get the kind without pulp.
• 1 tbsp of grenadine
• 1 tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

1. Pour the sparkling wine into a port glass or a small wine glass. Add the orange juice and then the grenadine and the lemon. The grenadine likes to go sailing down to the bottom of the drink making for a nice striping-sunset effect. But the result is an overly sour drink. Serve it with a stir stick so that people will know to stir the red sweetness up from the bottom to balance out the lemon.

3.1.09

The other Champagne Cocktails from the “6 Easy Champagne Cocktails, 9 Simple Ingredients” series:

The Pink French 75

Coming Soon:
The Poinsetta
The Black Velvet
The Barbowhatever
Sparkling Sangria

Oh, and hey, I’m looking for more great ideas to make my little party more festive. Do you have any suggestions? I’d love to hear them in the comments below.

Some more tasty inspirations for you:

A Warm Salad For Brunch (And To Win Friends)Easy Champagne Cocktails: The PoinsettiaEasy Champagne Cocktails: The BarbowhateverEasy Champagne Cocktails: The Black Velvet