Recipe

• 3 parts brandy

• 1 part lemon juice

• 1 part elderberry liqueur (or crème de cassis)

• 4 parts sparkling white wine

Shake the first three ingredients with ice, strain into a champagne glass, and top up with the sparkling wine.  Add a twist of orange peel.

A good friend of mine found this little cocktail game online, and decided to share it with me.  I chose the options based on what ingredients I had in the house, and it told me I had created a Coquette! It was tasty enough, but the elderberry was a bit overpowering.  I'm starting to think it's not actually a valid replacement for crème de cassis, and I should be using it in a different way.  In any case, it went down nicely!  Brandy and sparkling wine seem to match up quite well.

Merci beaucoup, Chichi!