Very soon this amazing year will be over, and we think a celebration of a new beginning deserves a signature cocktail. This refreshing champagne cocktail delivers with bright color and with a twist of fresh flavors. And its ‘royal’ inspiration is sure impress guests at the New Year’s Eve party!
I started experimenting with champagne and fruit juice after getting inspired by this Prince of Wales recipe on Saveur. I knew that pineapple would be on my champagne cocktail ingredients list, but I wanted something lighter than the original recipe, something really fresh and zingy. Pineapple has a special, tropical flavor, and I wanted it to really stand out, to be highlighted by the champagne fizz and not to disappear among the other flavors.
I tested this champagne cocktail with different tropical flavors – coconut milk, pineapple syrup, passion fruit mash – but I decided to stick with the pineapple juice for its gorgeous yellow color and delicate taste, with coconut water (the milk looked gross) and fresh lime juice. But it was a half-inch piece of ginger that blew up the whole combination and turned this cocktail into something spectacular.
Ginger was the missing puzzle piece to complete this delicious and healthy champagne cocktail. It was all there – the lime zing, the coconut water sweetness, the champagne fizz, the ginger spice, and the pineapple flavor standing out yet balancing everything.
This recipe has the best taste if you use freshly juiced ripe pineapple. If you can’t find fresh pineapple, you can use pasteurized juice but the taste will be stronger and a bit unbalanced, but you can solve the situation by adding a little extra lime juice.
Here’s for the gorgeous new year to come!
Pineapple-Ginger Champagne Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fresh pineapple juice
- 1/2 inch piece ginger peeled and grated
- Fresh juice from half a lime
- 1 cup champagne
- 1/4 cup coconut water
- 1/2 tsp organic raw honey optional
- To garnish: lime slices
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker muddle the pineapple juice, grated ginger, lime juice, coconut water and honey.
- Filter the mixture to remove ginger and pineapple pulp.
- Strain the liquid into serving glasses and top with champagne.
- Decorate the glasses with lime slices and serve.
This looks great! I’d love to try making a non alcoholic version too!