Name: Champagne Cup
Ingredients: 1 bottle of champagne; 2 bottles of soda water; ⅓ cup of brandy; ⅓ cup of Curaçao; slices of cucumber peel; juice of 1 lemon

Why it works: Champagne and brandy work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Champagne Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the champagne, soda water, brandy, Curaçao, cucumber peel, and lemon juice in a large pitcher.
Stir gently to combine.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Champagne + brandytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,067 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Champagne + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together404 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Champagne + cucumbertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Champagne: Provides the sparkling base and the main flavour of the drink.
Brandy: Adds body and warmth, giving the punch more depth than wine alone.
Curaçao: Adds orange sweetness and aroma that balances the drink's dryness.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.