How to make a Champagne cocktail

Ingredients:

Sugar cubes

Angostura bitters

Champagne

Step 1: Put a sugar cube in a Champagne flute

Step 2: Add three to four dashes of Angostura bitters, soaking the sugar cube

Step 3: Open the Champagne bottle by first removing the foil wrapper and cap. With the bottle on a 45 degree angle, hold the cork in place with one hand and rotate the bottle (not the cork). Holding the bottle on this angle allows the maximum amount of air to enter the bottle, which lessens the chances of the bottle overflowing.

Step 4: Slowly pour the Champagne into the glass, so you don't waste any bubbly. The sugar in the bottom of the glass makes the Champagne bubble more than usual (as Rachel demonstrates.)

I’m Rachel Maddow here for my friends at Howdini.com and I’m going to show you how to make a Champagne cocktail. A Champagne cocktail is very simple and very delicious. It’s also a good way to bring Champagne back from the dead. If you’ve got some Champagne left over from the night before that’s a little flat, this will bring it back to life.

Here’s how you start.  Put a sugar cube in your Champagne flute. Then, you want to soak the sugar cube with bitters. Try not to make a mess. About three or four dashes. Now you’re going to open your Champagne. You want to hold onto the cork and twist the bottle. Ready? One, two, (three). If you hold the Champagne bottle at this kind of an angle you are getting the maximum amount of air in there and you have – you’re least likely to have it overflow now that you’ve opened it. So, hold it at an angle so you don’t make a huge mess. And then….the most difficult thing about making a Champagne cocktail is having the patience to not pour too fast because you want to drink the darn thing. Ta-dah….and over. Ta-dah. So don’t do that. Umm, but the Champagne cocktail, the reason you are getting so many bubbles is because the sugar is making the bubbles, which is why the Champagne cocktail is a great way to bring slightly flat Champagne back from the dead. Because that sugar will make any bubble in there bubble.

I’m Rachel Maddow for Howdini.com.  Big cheers to Daddy-O’s Bar in the West Village of New York City, for helping us out today. Enjoy!