Skip to main content
Drink

Champagne-Cup

A chilled cocktail made with champagne, soda water, brandy or curaçao, powdered sugar, ice, and a sprig of green borage or cucumber.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

  1. Combine all ingredients in a silver cup or bowl.

  2. Stir them together gently.

  3. Serve immediately, similar to claret-cup.

  4. Adjust sugar to taste if necessary.

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.

  1. Champagne + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Champagne + boragetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Brandy + boragetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + boragetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together129 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Champagne
Provides the main body and the bubbles that give the drink its sparkle.
Brandy or curaçao
Adds the spirit's strength and aroma, giving the drink its character.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and alcohol, and dissolves easily in cold liquid.
Soda water
Adds more fizz and dilutes the drink, making it lighter and less strong.
Pounded ice
Chills the drink quickly and dilutes it slightly as it melts.

The step that matters

Stir gently. Vigorous stirring releases the carbon dioxide that keeps champagne and soda water fizzy. Gentle stirring mixes the ingredients while keeping the drink lively.

Swap the borage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (champagne, brandy, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Boragethe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against champagne, brandy, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Champagne PunchChampagne Punch24 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipes