Sweet Bubbly Champagne Cocktail Simple Elegant Holiday Treat

A sugar cube, 2 dashes Angostura, and ice-cold bubbles: the 1860s Champagne Cocktail that leapt from hotel-bar hack to 160-year icon of elegance. The magic is precision—40–45°F fizz, bitters‑soaked cube, lemon oils, slow pour, no stir. From Jerry Thomas’s 1862 guide to IBA canon, it spawned riffs like Ritz Paris’s Cognac and NOLA’s Peychaud’s—and a never-ending flute vs coupe fight.