Seelbach cocktail

Photo by Gareth Lewis-Jones

It's the first Saturday of the month, so we thought that we'd celebrate this by a sparkling cocktail.

This one has a fabulous history.  Fabulous in the confabulated sense.  The Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky has a long history.  In 1995, Adam Segar, the then bartender, claimed to have found the recipe in old menus.  In reality, he'd made it up.

Simon Difford has a great account of this story here.

Ingredients

30 ml bourbon

15 ml Cointreau

3 dashes Peychaud's bitters

3 dashes Angostura bitters

120 ml brut Champagne

An orange twist

Note that Difford dials down the amount of bitters, giving a subtler flavour.

Method

Place the bourbon, Cointreau and bitters into a mixing glass and stir over ice for 25 seconds.

Double strain into a flute and top up with the Champagne.  Garnish with the orange twist.

Enjoy while making up your own story for why you should be drinking it.