Why gift someone a bottle of Champagne when you can give them a DIY Champagne cocktail kit to make their own celebratory cocktails? When it was time for a socially distant New Year’s Eve celebration, I wanted to put together a little gift/kit for my friends I’d usually be spending the evening with.
Creating a champagne cocktail kit was fast and easy, and best of all, was a fun way to mix up cocktails together. Putting together a kit like this takes just a few minutes after a trip to the liquor store and is a perfect gift to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, graduations and business successes.
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What’s in a Champagne Cocktail?
While a traditional champagne cocktail is just a sugar cube with bitters in the bottom of a champagne-filled flute, I’m doing a little more with the flavors here. I wanted to give my friends a choice in the flavors and combinations they’ll add to their cocktail, rather than just a tin of bittered sugar cubes.
In my case, I’m assuming my friends have a bottle of bourbon, because, let’s face it, if you hang out with me in person you’re likely to be drinking whiskey with me. However, you can do this with gin or vodka as well. It’ll work with any spirit.
I suggest sticking with an aged spirit or a gin to get a great flavor profile in the cocktail. But if you’re giving to a vodka lover, that will work just fine.
Contents of a Champagne Cocktail Kit
To make a great DIY cocktail kit, I wanted to give my friends a great set of flavor options that always work well with Champagne or bubbles. To that end, I wanted to include orange, a nut, a fruit and a spice. Chocolate is also an amazing flavor combination with both bourbon and bubbles.
Given the selections at my local liquor store, I ended up with a Grand Marnier, a hazelnut, peach and ginger. With those four flavor combinations they’ve got at least eight great combinations to try. My favorites were ginger-peach and orange-hazelnut
In addition, I included a small bag with some dried lemon and orange wheels, cinnamon sticks and dried raspberries as garnish options. But if you’d like to stick to the classics, including a lemon for a citrus twist or zest is a perfect complement to your flavors.
I suggest also going to a local thrift store and getting a few champagne flutes for under a dollar. Sometimes there are gorgeous flutes available for a dollar or so. I purchase most of my glassware at the thrift store since I tend to break delicate glassware frequently.
Full Contents:
- 1 or 2 small bottles of bubbles
- 1 mini of orange liqueur
- 1 mini of hazelnut liqueur
- 1 mini of ginger liqueur
- 1 mini of peach liqueur
- Small bag with dried citrus wheels, cinnamon sticks, dried raspberries, dried fruit. You can also add a lemon or orange for them to create citrist twists or peels from.
- Card with directions on building the cocktail
- Optional: 1 or 2 champagne flutes
I also added a printed card to the contents which contained a list of the liqueurs I included and instructions on making the cocktails. Enter your email here for a link to the pdf download. You can print it out and write in the liqueurs you’re adding to the package.
Simply print out the 1 page form, fold it in half and write in the liqueurs you selected for the kit.
Easy peasy.
How to Pick the Champagne (or Bubbles)
Because this is a gift and we’re mixing with other spirits, I opted to include one or two small, single-serving bottles of prosecco or Champagne. If you’re giving a full bottle, make sure to pick a brut or extra brut champagne since your additions to the cocktail will be sweet liqueurs. Unless, of course, you know they love sweeter bubbles. If that’s the case, prosecco, dry, or demi sec works.
I worked with small bottles of prosecco because that was available at the liquor store. I’m also rather fond of sweeter sparkling wines so I love sharing my fondness for prosecco.
So, be flexible here. If they have a favorite you know they love, choose that. If you have a favorite you want to share with them, choose that. And if you have no idea, go for a little less-sweet on the sparkling wine spectrum.
Other Bubbles Cocktails You Might Love
- Raspberry Champagne Bubbles
- Champagne Bourbon Cooler
- Strawberry Gin Bubbles
- Rhubarb Aperol Spritz
- Bitter Bourbon Spritz
Recommended Bar Tools
You don’t need every slick, beautiful bar tool out there, but there are several I’ll recommend. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. However, that does not affect the cost of the items below.) My favorite pieces usually come from the Cocktail Kingdom section of Amazon:
You may already have these bar essentials, but just in case:
Spirited Bubbles Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 oz base spirit. I used whiskey but gin or vodka would also work.
- ½ oz peach liqueur or other from your kit
- ½ oz ginger liqueur or other from your kit
- 4-6 oz chilled Brut or extra Brut Champagne or your favorite bubbles
- Garnish: dried fruit fresh fruit
Instructions
- Combine base spirit and two liqueurs in chilled champagne flute. Give a quick stir, top with bubbles and garnish. Cheers!
What an excellent idea you have shared of gifting someone a cocktail kit instead of just a single champagne bottle. Not only is it an exciting idea, but also fast, easy, and fun to mix cocktails, as you mentioned.
The kit provides a variety of flavors, and everyone loves the chocolate flavor. The printed card will be useful for the gift receiver to make a cocktail.