HOW-TO
LIQUID INTELLIGENCE
Cocktail making tips from the top with hospitality maestro Jack Sotti
S H U T TE R STOC K
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othing says celebration quite like a classic Champagne cocktail. Adding a good slug of highquality booze to a glass of the old bubbly not only levels up your celebrations but screams, luxury and excess. And when we’re talking Champagne cocktails I mean real Champagne, the biscuity, toasted brioche-y, green-apple skin guy from the Champagne region of France. Prosecco, while having many qualities, simply doesn’t cut the mustard in this particular context. But times are tough, so I pose the question: is there any way of replicating the flavours and effervescence of a Champagne cocktail, without having to splash out on a bottle of Dom? Answer? You can get pretty damn close! You will first need to consider the balance of flavours, the acidity and of course the carbonation. You should also consider which Champagne cocktail you’re looking to emulate. In this case, let’s pick a French 75, originally made with gin or Cognac, fresh lemon, simple sugar syrup and Champagne. Now, let’s break this cocktail down into its component parts. Some key nuances we are looking to emulate are oak, spice, citrus, orchard fruit, florals, nuttiness and toastiness. This can be replicated with oaked, fruity spirits like calvados, Armagnac and Cognac, plus the inclusion of fresh pressed green-apple juice for acidity. Hints of fortified wines will bring in nuttiness and acidity, and floral liqueurs of elderflower, peach or rose can provide delicate top notes. Acidity wise we have a complex mix, including strong malic and tartaric acids, from the wine itself, citric acid from the lemon, and carbonic acid from the bubbles. This layered acidity is what provides the length and texture of a great Champagne cocktail. This can be replicated by blending a solution of malic, citric and tartaric acids in a ratio of 3:2:1 in a concentration of 20 per cent acid to water.
Shampagne 250g Alsace Pinot Grigio 150g filtered Granny Smith apple juice 100g Fanny Fougerat VS Cognac 10g crème de Pêche 25g sugar syrup 2:1 25g manzanilla sherry 100g mineral water with high calcium content, Evian will suffice here 7.5g Champagne acid solution* Method: *To make a Champagne acid solution, blend 12g of malic acid, 8g citric acid and 4g of tartaric acid in 96g of water, and stir to dissolve. Filter through a coffee filter, chill and carbonate to your heart’s content!
Finally, Champagne is known for its fine, intense bubbles, each one popping on the surface (around 400 per second) delivering aromatics straight to the nose of the drinker. To achieve anywhere near the same quality of fizz you must consider the following: clarity, temperature, pressure and time. Ensure the liquid you are carbonating
YOU MUST CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING: CLARITY, TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE AND TIME 59 THE COCK TAIL LOVERS / ISSUE 43
is as clear as possible – any particles will create foaming and kill your carbonation quickly. Use a coffee filter. Next, make sure the liquid is cold but not freezing, 1ºC is ideal here, as the CO2 will dissolve easier in chilled liquid. Finally, to force carbonate you ideally need high pressure (we’re talking 40 psi) or a long time under pressure (1-3 days). Good carbonation can be achieved with a soda stream, which sits around 15 psi, but you would have to keep it in the fridge throughout the carbonation process. I would recommend either building a custom carbonation set-up, or purchasing a DrinkMate carbonator for the same price as a SodaStream. That way you can store your fizzy liquid under pressure in the fridge for a few days and gently release the pressure when it’s time to open.
