“There are no little things.” That’s a quote from an old girl friend. She used to say it a lot, apparently because with her everything was a big thing. And finally there were so many big thing one night she slammed the door on the way out. I thought she slammed it unintentionally because her arms were filled with clothes. I expected she would return. Still hasn’t. And now it would be very awkward. Suzen is not tolerant about these matters. No small things for her either.

I made champagne cocktails last weekend and I was again confounded by the instructions. People say things like “soak a sugar cube in bitters” and … What does that mean? How much bitters, how long, why just one cube?

I’m not being petty here. I look at those pictures of champagne cocktails and often wonder why there is just one solitary sugar cube at the bottom. It’s lonely down there. And just how do you soak the cube properly so when it finally is down there, it’s happy and elegantly in one piece.

And what bitters should you use? I know, everyone says Angostura bitters but I have two comments about that. First, I never like the flavor of it one bit. “Bitter” says it all. Second, there are much, much better alternatives out there. Fee Brothers makes a half dozen different bitters. Now, I would not do chocolate or celery or rhubarb bitters in my champage cocktail, but orange? Oh, you are about to have a wonderful drink.

Champagne Cocktail with Orange Bitters

Yield: 1 serious drink

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon orange bitters
• 2 sugar cubes
• 4-5 ounces of sparkling wine, champagne, proseco, …

Preparation:

Pour the orange  bitters into a 1 cup bowl with fairly steep sides. Place one cube in the bitters. Gently roll the cube one side at a time, one second at a time, until all six sides have been face down in the bitters. One second is enough time to let one face of the sugar cube absorb liquid, and yet still retain integrity. You don’t want to see a sadly disintegrating  sugar cube in the bottom of your flute when you first pick it up. Put the cube into a champagne flute and repeat with the second cube. Two cubes insures that neither one is lonely and does increase the sweetness of the drink.

Pour any residiual bitters liquid into the bottom of the champage flute. Waste not any great flavor.

Gently fill the flute about 3/4 full. Have the flute tipped at 45 degrees and gently add the bubbly. You’ll get serious fizz when the champagne hits the sugar.

I believe the combination here of orange and sugar will give you a boosted flavor that you have not enjoyed before. This beverage is obviously simple to make, yet it has an elegance that goes well beyond just a standard glass of champagne.

You see, there are little things. But they all count.