Champagne Charlie

Question As well as a cocktail, is Champagne Charlie: a) The title of a song; b) The nickname given to a famous and charming traveller? Answer Both. The song was a big hit for music-hall star, George Leybourne, in the middle of the 19th century. Through it he became rich …

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Kir Royale

The German soldiers who ransacked a French village’s supply of wine didn’t know what they were starting. The villagers weren’t going to give up their precious wine that easily! A rescue party led by Canon Felix Kir, the local priest, brought about the derailment of the train carrying the soldiers …

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Buck’s Fizz & Mimosa

Buck’s Fizz came about as the result of a missing ingredient. That’s according to the secretary of the Buck’s Club in London. Captain Buckmaster, the club’s founder, enjoyed golfing trips to France. On one of these, in 1921, he was given a cocktail combining champagne, peach juice and another ingredient. …

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Quick Champagne Cocktails

Madame Lily Bollinger of the champagne-making family is quoted as saying: “I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. …

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Bellini, the Peach Cocktail

In 1948, Giuseppi Ciprianti created the Bellini in Harry’s Bar in Venice. He was inspired by the 15th century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini; it was the pink glow in one of Bellini’s paintings that was the inspiration for this famous cocktail. Marinating fresh peaches in wine is an old long …

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Black Velvet

A Black Velvet is made using a stout beer more often than not Guinness and a sparkling white wine, often champagne. The origin of this cocktail comes from Brooks Club in London. In 1861 as people mourned the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s Prince Consort, this fine cocktail was …

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Champagne Cocktail

The Champagne Cocktail is referred to worldwide as the ‘Classic Champagne Cocktail’, with its simplicity but elegance and class. It first originated in 1899, from the winner of a New York cocktail competition. The Champagne Cocktail made its first public appearance in Jerry Thomas’s How to Mix Drinks, this book …

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Great Cocktails