Champagne Cocktail

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler, 1939

1 part brandy

2 parts Champagne

1 lemon twist, for garnish

Fill a cocktail glass with ice and add the brandy.

Top with the Champagne, garnish with the lemon twist, and enjoy.

“When the General is feeling a little better—possibly tomorrow—he would like to thank you in person.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll come out and drink some more of his brandy, maybe with champagne.”

“I shall see that some is properly iced,” the old boy said, almost with a smirk in his voice. That was that.

This novel is a classic Philip Marlowe detective story, wherein Marlowe tries to help one General Sternwood solve a blackmail case. All gets resolved, but it isn’t long before murder is on the menu, too. Marlowe is a hard-drinking private eye, but he’s not averse to the finer things in life, and here, he wants to sample some of the general’s finest alcohols, in this case his brandy and his Champagne in a cocktail. He’s assured that the drink will be waiting for him.

A different mixture than Twain’s Champagne Cock-Tail (see page 44), this blend of Champagne and brandy might be just the thing to intensify those lingering doubts about a crime, but it might also just be an indulgence for a fine evening, no blackmail required.