Skip to main content
Epicurious
Cookbooks

Baltic Midnight

By Jordan Hughes
Sparkling wine cocktail with a sugar cube in a champagne flute.
Photo by Jordan Hughes

This sparkling cocktail recipe plays on the classic Champagne cocktail, which is made by dropping a bitters-soaked sugar cube into a glass of Champagne. This produces a delightful fizzing effect, where the sugar cube continues to bubble and dissolve in the Champagne (or another kind of sparkling wine) as you sip. For this twist, I added an ounce of aquavit, which is essentially Nordic gin, flavored with herbs and spices that sometimes veer savory, so I felt like the recipe landed somewhere close to French 75 territory.

This bubbly drink is a great morning brunch cocktail. The name was inspired by my time visiting Northeastern Europe in the summer, where it’s so far north that the sun never really sets that time of year. So even at midnight, it feels like it’s daytime. This, combined with my strange craving for breakfast food in the late hours of the evening, made me decide that a “Baltic Midnight” was the best time of day.

This recipe was excerpted from 'Twist' by Jordan Hughes. Buy the full book on Amazon.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    2 minutes

  • Yield

    Makes 1

Ingredients

1 oz. (30 ml) aquavit
3 oz. (90 ml) chilled sparkling wine
1 sugar cube
4–5 dashes aromatic bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish

Preparation

  1. Add aquavit and chilled sparkling wine to a Champagne flute without ice. Hold a sugar cube on a cocktail napkin or barspoon and saturate it with a few heavy dashes of aromatic bitters. Drop the cube into the glass, and garnish by placing a lemon twist on the edge of the glass.

Twist-Cover.jpg
Reprinted with permission from Twist by Jordan Hughes. Page Street Publishing Co. 2022. Buy the full book from Amazon.
TagsCocktailAlcoholBeveragesCookbooksAquavitSparkling WineWineBrunch

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

Read More
Bicycle Bandit
A riff on the Bicycle Thief cocktail, a citrusy, low ABV riff on a Negroni, this three-ingredient, party-ready twist features grapefruit soda.
Mint Julep
A strip of lemon zest balances this refreshing spring classic.
Île Flottante
Originally called omelette à la neige (snow omelet) in reference to the fluffy snow-like appearance of the meringue, île flottante (floating island) has a lengthy history that dates back to the 17th century.
Béchamel Sauce
This classic 15-minute sauce is your secret weapon for homemade mac and cheese, chowder, lasagna, and more.
Homemade Whipped Cream
Fluffier, fresher, and fancier than anything from a tub or can.
Fufu
Fufu is a dish that has been passed down through many generations and is seen as a symbol of Ghanaian identity and heritage. Making fufu traditionally is a very laborious task; this recipe mimics some of that hard work but with a few home-cook hacks that make for a far easier time.
Grape Dumplings
Native American people made these with cornmeal dumplings, simmering them with wild grapes, which were harvested at their peak sweetness.
Sofrito Bolognese
An ex-boyfriend’s mom—who emigrated from Colombia—made the best meat sauce—she would fry sofrito for the base and simply add cooked ground beef, sazón, and jarred tomato sauce. My version is a bit more bougie—it calls for caramelized tomato paste and white wine—but the result is just as good.