The Spirits #73: The Champagne Cocktail

~ A Bad Cocktail? ~ Old Fashioned Socialism ~ Brandy Camping ~ Moderation ~

~ THE CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL ~

30ml brandy
Teaspoon of sugar
Dash Angostura bitters
~125ml sparkling wine
Lemon zest

Prepare a mini-punch base in the bottom of a sturdy vessel. I mean, pound together three swathes of lemon zest with the sugar to extract all that delicious oleo-saccharum - and then stir in the brandy and bitters until the sugar is fully dissolved. Now add plenty of ice and stir again for maximum froideur. Strain this mixture into the bottom of a frozen champagne vessel and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with fresh lemon zest.

Some Champagne Cocktail Notes:

1) Don’t use champagne unless you are rich - and certainly don’t use good champagne unless you are extremely rich. Prosecco, cava, and especially crémant are far better choices. Save your money for good lemons.

2) If making this for a party, multiply the quantities for the brandy-sugar-bitters base by the number of guests so you can prepare a big old batch. Store in a jug and keep cold in the fridge. Makes everything swing.

Well, yes. Exactly.

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here. 
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.

And you like The Spirits, do please forward this to your friends.

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I try to keep this newsletter at one remove from the whirl of politics. I want to take you away from all those headaches; to show you instead a glimpse of the good life that may be accessed not through by-elections or referenda, but through the portal in your very own home that you may access at any time. It’s one reason I tend not to push this or that luxury brand but instead emphasise the truer discernment that comes with learning how to do something well. For the two components that really elevate a cocktail, ice and charm, are essentially free. And yet this, I realise, is in itself political. Do you call it Martini Socialism? Or maybe just Old Fashioned Socialism. True socialism means luxury for all; for lord knows there is enough gin to go around. Maybe nationalise the Savoy, Connaught and Claridges while we’re at it.

Anyway! These insurrectionary thoughts are prompted, in part by the political weather here in the United Kingdom (for nothing exists in a vacuum) but also by the Champagne Cocktail itself, a drink that could only have been invented under a perverse and profligate economic system. The original recipe, dating back to 1862, is all wrong: a sugar lump, soused in bitters, smothered in your finest champagne? The sugar remains undissolved. Should you add brandy (which I always thought was canonical but is actually a later addition) it just tastes overly strong. If you use champagne, you have wasted it. And I don’t believe in waste.

Still, with a little housepersonly ingenuity, the combination can be greatly improved upon. The solution is to make a sort of brandy punch base (as above) and top with sparkling wine which provides just enough acidity to round the thing out. The purpose of cocktails is, remember, to make cheaper ingredients taste better rather than expensive ingredients taste worse. Then you might find this to be a pleasing and fairly easy celebratory drink. To us! To the Summer Solstice! To the RMT and payrises in general! And to me (it’s my birthday on Saturday). Champagne Cocktails for the many not the few!

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ASK RICHARD

Spirits subscriber Natasha Rudat enquireth:

“Hi Richard, a random question. We're off to Glastonbury and after years of drinking warm cans by the tent we want to up our game! Can I ask if you have any suggestions for pre-mixed cocktails we could take and are just about drinkable warm and without ice! I accept this goes against all cocktail laws but we'll need it! s

You know, I mean to answer this last week and forgot. Clearly this is too late for poor Natasha but: my advice is this. Take brandy in a hip flask and perhaps a small vial of sugar syrup, honey syrup, maybe a cinnamon syrup, with a few dashes of bitters in it. The reason being: brandy is just as good at room temperature. You can drink it neat, or prepare yourself an Old Fashioned-type drink by mixing it with the syrup. If you fancy something more cooling, you can mix it with fresh milk (and sugar) which are both readily available at tea-making facilities. And in the evenings, drop it into your chai. DO STAY HYDRATED THOUGH! Small sips x

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PLAYLIST

I had a piece in the Sunday Times last week about how old music is crowding out new music from the streaming platforms, the main results being: record company profits are through the roof and working musicians’ earnings are through the floor. “You’re a fine one to talk, pushing Etta James and Serge Gainsbourg onto us each week!” you may cry. And fair enough. So here, at the halfway point of the year are songs from 2022 that I have been enjoying. There is no less wonderful music being made than ever; you just have to make that bit more effort to find it.

THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. The idea is, you download it and return to it each week in your Spotify. If there was an old song you’d like to hear again, you’ll find it RIGHT HERE in the ongoing archive of 2021 playlists.

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

Pop’s Day of the Dead: Old music will not die and it’s becoming a problem for new bands. (Sunday Times)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

How Mick Lynch won over the British public (New Statesman)

“Two phrases only are necessary for a whole evening of English conversation, I have found: ‘Scotch-and-soda?’ and ‘Why not?’ By alternating them, it is impossible to make a mistake.” - Jean-Paul Sartre (New Yorker)

The End of the Asset Economy (The Atlantic)

The Rise of “Lobotomy Chic”. Or, why the disassociated pout is the pose du jour on Instagram and “do everything feel nothing” is the sentiment of musicians from Dry Cleaning to Dean Blunt. (Pitchfork)

Tanya Gold is one of the best there is; here, she spins the Tiverton by-election into gold. (Unherd)

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SHOPPING LIST

Italian or French vermouth, the liqueur of your choice (orange liqueur), soda water, citrus.