Drink of the Week: Seelbach

I was planning on posting this recipe on Friday night. But, as it is a champagne cocktail, it's actually an appropriate starter for your Easter dinner too. Note: this is our first outdoor cocktail picture of the year. It was a lovely, warm spring evening. (It's 34 degrees today. Ah, Spring, you fickle, fickle season.)

I was first introduced to the Seelbach at No. 9 Park, a really fabulous, high-end Boston restaurant carried it on their cocktail list when we were there a year or so ago. Its sweetness makes it a nice after dinner drink but the festive fizz from the champagne (and the gentle mule-kick from the bourbon) makes an appropriate apertif for a festive occassion. The history of the Seelbach is here.

On Friday, Dinner Party Download made the Seelbach their Drink of the Day. Seeing their tweet reminded me of what a lovely cocktail the Seelbach is so I put it into the rotation. By the way, The Dinner Party Download is a super-duper podcast, as they put it: "The Dinner Party Download is a fast and funny "booster shot" of unconventional news, cuisine and culture to help you win this weekend’s dinner party." They won my heart with that last phrase - dinner parties can seem like battlegrounds at times. The DPD is a funny, informative and quick hit of data. What other podcast gives you a drink recipe, an icebreaking joke, neat factoids and food and drink and cocktail party chatter?

Seelbach
Briefly stir together in an iced mixing glass, just to chill:

• 3/4 ounce bourbon
• 1/2 ounce Cointreau
• 7 dashes Angostura bitters
• 7 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Strain into a champagne flute and top with chilled brut Champagne (We used cheap Spanish cava instead. Nowhere near as swell, big fat bubbles, but hella cheaper.) Garnish with an orange twist.