We celebrate the 100th Dale/David Project post with a tutorial on one of the great classic cocktails, the Champagne Cocktail. One of the oldest cocktails that is still regularly made, the Champagne Cocktail is attributed to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, as written in his 1862 volume How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion. They don't name books like they used to, and they don't make bartenders like the Professor, who has been referred to as the "P.T. Barnum of the Bar."

We have been mixing cocktails tonight at the home of our friend Jenna Noel, of Edible Austin magazine. Jenna's grandparents reside on a sugar plantation in Louisiana. The sugar we used tonight comes from a family friend who works at the Supreme Sugar Refinery in Labadieville, Louisianna. The gentleman who provided the sugar also serves as the "nuisance alligator hunter" in the area, which is how they became acquainted. Every time Jenna's family goes back to Louisiana, they pick up a load of fresh sugar from the mill. It is raw and we put it to good use tonight.

Usually, the first step in making a Champagne Cocktail is to locate a sugar cube. If you do not have a sugar cube, but instead your grandparents own a sugar plantation, use lumps of raw sugar fresh from the mill.

Soak the sugar cubes with Angostura bitters

Fill the glass with Champagne--the coupe glass is not ideal because it doesn't show off the sexy Champagne (or, in this case, cheap sparkling) bubbles, and goes flatter faster, but it is what we have on hand tonight

Cut a nice lemon twist and garnish your Champagne Cocktail

The Champagne Cocktail

For a variation on the Champagne Cocktail, Dale DeGroff suggests that you "add a float of Cognac or Grand Marnier." I decided to add a float of locally made Paula's Texas Orange--yummy!