This Champagne Blood Orange Old Fashioned came together because I was dying to try out some new champagne simple syrup I’d made from a bottle I hadn’t finished. I know. Travesty. I hate for any distilled spirit to go to waste, and using the last bits of a bottle to make a quick simple syrup was the perfect solution.
Making simple syrup from champagne, or any wine really, is as simple as putting it over low heat and adding sugar until it dissolves. I use a 1 to 1 ratio. I paired it with Solerno Blood Orange liqueur because champagne and blood oranges are a match made in heaven, and this liqueur is particularly vibrant with the flavor or orange.
The new glasses were a find from a vintage store – $1 a piece for a set of four and I love both the etching and the gilded edges. They appear a little worn, but I think that just adds to the charm.
I used my usual ratio to start: 2 oz of a bourbon with 1/2 oz simple syrup, and added in a bit of the blood orange liqueur. The trick was finding the right bitters to balance the sweetness of the liqueur and the champagne simple syrup.
The right bitters was Crude’s Bitterless Marriage bitters, which are floral and just a little woody. Using those bitters toned down the sweet in the champagne old fashioned to an optimized level. The cocktail became dangerously sippable. You’ve been warned.
For the garnish, I opted to slice an orange and use a kitchen torch to add a little hint of smoke and char to the slice. I placed a slice in each cocktail, then arranged one on top of the ice in each.
Champagne Blood Orange Old Fashioned
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon
- 1/2 oz champagne simple syrup
- 1/4 oz Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
- 8 drops Crude Bitterless Marriage Bitters
- 1 lightly torched orange slice use a kitchen torch, your gas stove or your broiler to torch the slice
Instructions
- Add the bourbon, simple syrup, blood orange liqueur and bitters to a mixing glass and fill it with ice. Stir until well chilled and strain into a rocks glass filled with one large cube of ice. Place the garnish in the cocktail. Enjoy.
