Spice Up Your New Year's Eve Champagne

New Year's is almost here and that means PARTY! 

New Year's Eve is one of the biggest party nights and the staple of the night is CHAMPAGNE. So, we wanted to give you a couple of tips we found on how to spice up champagne for the big night. 

Mandarin Cocktail:

1 ounce of mandarin liqueur 

4 ounces champagne

Clementine peel, for garnish

Pour liqueur into a champagne flute; top with champagne. Twist clementine peel over glass and gently drop into cocktail (Pictured above). 

Lavender Champagne:

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon dried lavender

4 bottles (750 mL) dry champagne or sparkling wine, chilled

Fresh lavender springs, for garnish 

(Serves 16)

Bring sugar and 1/2 cup water to boil in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in dried lavender. Remove from heat. Let cool completely. Strain out lavender. Refrigerate syrup until ready to serve (up to 1 month). 

Pour about 6 ounces champagne and 1 1/2 teaspoons syrup into each flute. Garnish each with lavender sprig (pictured above).  

Champagne with Grapes:

Thread grapes onto a skewer and serve in each glass of champagne (pictured above).

In Spain, revelers mark the new year by quickly eating a dozen grapes at midnight. The fruit is said to be the predictor of the year ahead. Each sweet grape represents a good month, each sour grape a less-than-lucky one. Party idea - try and play the game with your guests!