How to Make a Champagne Cocktail

[Music-Playing] Anthony: Welcome to the art of the drink video Podcast. My name is Anthony Caporale [banging sound] and we are on our last week with our December drink art girl Tracy. We are coming up on New Year’s Eve. So, I am going to do a Champagne Cocktail for two reasons. One, is to quit essential New Year’s Eve drink right? Tracy: Yes. Anthony: And two, people will be going to be opening a lot of Champagne on New Year’s Eve and I do not know about you but it seems to me like a lot of people are die cupful opening Champagne. [Laughing] Tracy: Yes I never open a bottle of Champagne. [Banging sound] Anthony: The drink is a Champagne Cocktail. Basically, the Champagne is sugar and bitters Tracy: Okay. Anthony: But it is all in how you make it. And traditionally, you need use a sugar cube, all right and then, couple of dashes what is called Angostura bitters, you can get it usually in the drink all and what it does is it all sets the sweetness of drinks. Tracy: Oh good. Anthony: All right. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: So few dashes of bitters and now the champagne. What I am going to be opening today is a bottle of cheap Champagne because 90% of the Champagne that is open on New Years Eve is cheap champagne. Tracy: Cheap champagne. Anthony: Exactly. Which mean, plastic cork and plastic cork will a little bit difficult to deal with the real cork so, that is why I am going to show you how to do. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: So, let us start -- I like to start with the wine tool actually. Now, you can I do not know whether you can be able to see or not but the Champagne has a little metal tab under there and what I like to do just find that and kind of pry it up. Now some Champagne bottles will actually have a plastic wrapper, a little plastic ribbon that goes around like on the CD case, right, you can pull, but just in case yours, does not. It gives you a little bit nicer opening if you just score it with a wine tool. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: All right, and then you can just go ahead and take foil and the foil will lift right off. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: All right on that, again, gives you a nice finish look on it. Now few parts to cup bottle of Champagne, there is the cork which in this case it is plastic like I said, and there is the cage which is the middle part and the cage is what keeps the cork in case the Champagne warms up or it is drop or agitated in keep support from pumping off because it is highly carbonate, okay? The first thing we are going to do is take the cage off and from the minute that I loosen this cage forward I want to have at least one finger over the cork the whole time. Tracy: So it does not go flying off into the air. Anthony: So it does not go flying off into the air right. Contrary to popular opinion, you do not a shoot cork across the room because it actually can be dangerous. You want to keep the cork on until you are ready to take it off and then you want it to come off very-very gently and slowly. I will show you how to do that, alright? So first thing I want to do is untwist this cage, counter clockwise, and loosen it up. Now, I am going to transfer my finger underneath the cage and take the cage off and now my other finger is holding the cork the whole time, all right? Now, I am righty so I put my left hand on the cork and my right hand on the bottle and my fingers are grasping just the cork. My right hand is holding the bottle firmly. Now, this is the whole key, I am going to twist the bottle not the cork. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: All right, so I hold the cork with my left hand steady and I just twist the bottle very gently and-- Tracy: Maybe wearing safety goggles for this. Anthony: [Laughing] actually, you are right! A lot of waiters will do this under a napkin for that reason, but if you do it this way properly, you should not have to worry about it and all I am doing is just twisting the bottle very-very gently, and putting a little bit of pressure upwards with my left hand. Tracy: Okay. Anthony: And that is all you get, right there. All right, and you can see that Champagne does