25 Jul Summer Cocktail Week: How to Make an ‘Elderbubble’ Champagne Cocktail

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chantal turn down champagne,” Ryan said in our kitchen a few days ago. We had a guest in town from DC, and let’s just say…the flutes were flying.

The ongoing “sparkling wine as an everyday drink” is a movement that I support fully — and at its vanguard is my dear friend Maria Hunt. She’s the author of The Bubbly Bar (Clarkson Potter), published in 2009 and bursting with a wide range of recipes for prosecco, cava, champagne and sparkling shiraz. Cocktails featured include the crisp, lemongrass/ginger-supported Kiwi Kiss, and the Bubbling Blackberry Bramble, which incorporates a heavenly rose geranium syrup that you can make and store at home. (Find the syrup recipe on page 98.)

‘The Bubbly Bar’ by Maria C. Hunt is one of our go-to cocktail books.

For Part Five of Summer Cocktail Week, we’re smitten with the Elderbubble on page 68. Maria first tried this champagne cocktail at the former Laurel restaurant here in San Diego, and praises “the haunting flavor of white elderflower syrup, reminiscent of lychee fruit.” We also adore the addition of midsummer-friendly raspberries.

Here’s the recipe.

Clearly, we were on an anchor kick that afternoon. (Earrings from Virtue boutique in Asheville, NC.)

Just say ‘ouais’ to the hand-picked elderflower blossoms that make St-Germain a lovely champagne companion. (Champanion?)

The Elderbubble

Serves one.

Ingredients

1 ounce white elderflower syrup or St-Germain elderflower liqueur

½ ounce raspberry vodka

3 to 3 ounces brut champagne

2 fresh or frozen raspberries for garnish

Method

Add the elderflower syrup and raspberry vodka to the champagne flute. Top off with the champagne. Garnish with the raspberries.

Respect your elderflowers.

—TH

For you: two Elderbubble cocktails.