Best Champagne Drinks From A Minnesota Mixologist

This Charming Man Cocktail

• Glass of ice
• 3/4 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin
• 1/4 ounce crème de cassis
• 1/4 fresh lemon
• Cava

Mix all ingredients together in a glass. Stir with a straw, top it off with Cava and then add a lemon wheel.

Alive With Pleasure a.k.a The Return of a Best Friend

• 1/3 glass of ice
• 1 ounce Gordon's gin
• 1 ounce yuzu-ginger syrup
• Cava

Combine the ingredients, shake and strain. It should fill the martini glass 2/3 to 3/4 full. Top with Cava, add a dash of cherry pimms and a smaller dash of sour cherry syrup. Garnish with a brandied cherry on a stick and a mounted key lime wheel.

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To Gild The Lily

• 1/2 ounce chilled pre-mix (consists of 50 percent gin, 25 percent Yellow Chartreuse, 25 percent St. Germain, orange bitters and orange blossom water)
• Cava
• Lemon twist

Michaels keeps this pre-mix chilled in the cooler, so when he gets an order, he sugars the flute's rim, adds half an ounce of chilled pre-mix and then tops with Cava and garnishes with the lemon twist. He strongly believes it's easier than jiggering out three small amounts of liquor and liqueurs.

Brute Nature-Snifter

• 2/3 ounce cognac
• 1/3 ounce Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Original Bitters
• Cava

Mix all ingredients together in a champagne flute and enjoy. But be careful, these taste so good that they go down extremely easily.

The Esquire-Snifter

• 2/3 ounce cognac
• 1/3 ounce Mandarine Napoleon
• 2 dashes of Angostura or Regans' orange bitters
• Cava

The Esquire-Snifter will quickly liven up a person's day. Mix all ingredients together in a champagne flute. It is not recommended to mix with other cocktails. This one is spirited, elegant and best enjoyed during the fall and spring seasons in Minnesota.

About Johnny Michaels: 

Mixologist Johnny Michaels is a pioneer in the art of making cocktails. He has written for several publications, including a monthly article for Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine, inspired other bartenders to stay relentless in the art form and designed the cocktail menus for restaurants in the area. He is one of the founders of the North Star Bartenders' Guild (NSBG), along with the help of a small community of like-minded mixologists (Nick Kosevich, Jesse Held, Pip Hanson, Chad Larson and Jeff Rogers). They all collaborated and put together the "North Star Cocktails" book - a mixology handbook that illustrates how to make designer drinks. 

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