White Wine Spritzers

Mix a pitcher of white wine spritzers (coolers). They're refreshing and perfect for summer entertaining!

• Cranberry White Wine Spritzer
• Key Lime Spritzer
• Lemon Balm Wine Cooler
• Sous le Soleil

Image credit

Cranberry White Wine Spritzer

Pastry Affair
Makes 1

Ingredients
1 Tbsp Cranberry Syrup
4-oz Riesling, chilled
4-oz lemon-lime flavored soda, chilled

Garnish:
Fresh cranberries (optional)

Preparation
Spoon Cranberry Syrup into the bottom of a wine glass; gently pour wine and soda over, without disturbing the syrup. Garnish with the cranberries and serve immediately.

Source:  Pastry Affair

Last Updated 22 April 2016

Ritz Cocktail | Dale Degroff

This cocktail, created by bartending legend Dale Degroff, has an elegant, old-school appeal.

Photo source unknown

Ritz Cocktail

Makes 1

Ingredients
1-oz cognac
1/2-oz maraschino liqueur (such as Luxardo)
1/2-oz Cointreau
1/4-oz lemon juice
Sparkling wine

Garnish:
1 flamed orange twist

Notes: To garnish this drink with Degroff's signature flamed orange twist, cut a disk of orange peel a little bigger than a half-dollar coin. Light a wooden match, and hold it between the drink and the peel. Squeeze the peel so that its oils pass through the flame before landing on the surface of the cocktail.

Preparation
In a cocktail shaker, shake ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and top with sparkling wine.

Garnish with a flamed orange twist, if desired.

Champagne Punch: 1960s Recipes (4)

The punch recipes in this post include champagne plus three or more other ingredients:

• Ethel Kennedy's Punch
• Evans' Champagne Punch for 100
• Fruited Champagne Punch
• Hartwell's Open House Punch

Source

Ethel Kennedy's Punch

Makes about 2.8-Quarts

Ingredients
1 bottle ginger ale (about 28 to 32-oz?)
1 (750 ml) champagne
1 (750 ml) dry sherry
8.0-oz (1 cup) cherry brandy

Preparation

Chill all ingredients. Just before serving, combine all ingredients.

Amazon

Champagne Punch for 100

Evans - 1969
Makes about 7 Gallons

Ingredients
2-QTS pineapple juice

4-QTS lemon juice

3-QTS orange juice

5-LBS sugar

14 (750 ml-each) bottles champagne, chilled

7- or 8-QTS sparkling water, chilled

Preparation

Mix juices and sugar; place mix in jars and pack in ice.

Just before serving, add champagne, and for every gallon of mix, add 1 1/2-quart of sparkling water.

Source: Junior League of Lafayette's Talk About Good! (Memphis: Wimmer Brothers, Inc, 1969), 6.

Amazon

Fruited Champagne Punch

1963
Makes 22 punch-cup servings

Ingredients
8.0-oz (1 cup) water

2 cups granulated sugar

24.0-oz (3 cups) lemon juice

24.0-oz (3 cups) orange juice

12.0-oz (1.5 cups) orange curaçao

2.0-oz (1/4 cup) grenadine

1 (4/5-quart) bottle cognac

Iced Fruits for Punch (make day before)

2 (4/5-quart) bottles chilled champagne

Preparation

In advance: In saucepan, bring water and sugar to boil; cool. Combine this simple syrup with lemon and orange juices, curacao, grenadine, and cognac; refrigerate.

At serving time: Arranged Iced Fruits for Punch in punch bowl.

Pour in grenadine mixture; slowly add champagne.

Source: The Good Housekeeping Cookbook Edited by Dorothy B Marsh (Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, 1963), 689.

Amazon

Open House Champagne Punch

Hartwell's - 1969
Makes about 2.8-Gallons

Ingredients
6 (750 ml) bottles dry champagne, chilled

3 (750 ml) bottles sauterne, chilled

3-PTS brandy, chilled

3-QTS sparkling water, chilled

Preparation

Pour all ingredients over large chunk of ice in punch bowl.

Source: Junior League of Lafayette's Talk About Good! (Memphis: Wimmer Brothers, Inc, 1969), 6.

Gingered Pear Brandy | Cooking Light

Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner via Cooking Light

Gingered Pear Brandy

Makes 10 servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup chopped peeled fresh ginger
3 cups pear juice
1 cup cognac

For garnish:
10 lemon rind twists


Notes: To start ahead for a party, simply prepare the gingered sugar syrup and refrigerate it until you're ready to shake and serve the cocktails.

Preparation

Combine 1/4 cup water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add ginger. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.

Strain sugar mixture through a fine sieve. Discard solids. Chill sugar mixture for 30 minutes, or until ready to use.

Fill a large martini shaker half full with ice. Add sugar mixture, juice, and cognac; shake until chilled. Strain 1/2 cup mixture into each of 10 martini glasses.

Garnish each serving with 1 lemon twist.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 111 (0.0% from fat)
Fat: 0.0g (sat 0.0g, mono 0.0g, poly 0.0g)
Protein: 0.1g
Carbohydrate: 15.4g
Fiber: 0.5g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 0.4mg
Sodium: 3mg
Calcium: 5mg

Laura Zapalowski's Gingered Pear Brandy recipe was published in Cooking Light Magazine (November 2008).