Champagne Cocktail

The perfect
toast

The origins of the Champagne Cocktail seem to be tied to a curious challenge: it's 1889, and its creator would be one John Dougherty, who supposedly created the drink by winning a competition among colleagues organized by an American journalist. A second version of its origin story is also about a contest, but places it in the next century, in the 1930s, a decade in which the Champagne Cocktail actually became widely popular among the public.

What is certain is that this cocktail had already appeared in some recipe books compiled well before its origin: featured in 1862 in the famous “Bartender's Guide: How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion” by ‘Professor’ Jerry Thomas, the previous year it also appeared in a famous publication from Victorian England: “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management”. The Champagne Cocktail would also make its appearance in cinema, from “The Thin Man” (1934) to “Casablanca” (1942), as well as within the pages of “The Big Sleep”, a best-selling crime novel by Raymond Chandler.