Cocktail recipe
Champs-Élysées
Cognac takes a stroll through lemon and Chartreuse, fragrant, polished and deceptively lively.
Ingredients
- 45 ml (1½ oz) Cognac
- 15 ml (½ oz) green Chartreuse
- 22.5 ml (¾ oz) fresh lemon juice
- 15 ml (½ oz) simple syrup (1:1)
- 1 dash aromatic bitters
- Garnish: 1 lemon twist
Preparation
Shake Cognac, Chartreuse, lemon, syrup and bitters briskly over ice. Fine-strain into a chilled coupe, express a fresh lemon twist over the surface, and settle it neatly on the rim. Aim for a bright sour with a green herbal echo rather than a heavy digestif.
Glassware
Chilled coupe
History
The Champs-Élysées takes its name from Paris's celebrated avenue. The earliest known published recipe is in Nina Toye and Arthur H. Adair's *Drinks—Long and Short* (1925), combining three measures of brandy, one of Chartreuse, one and a half of sweetened lemon juice and a dash of Angostura bitters. The formula is a close relative of the Sidecar, with Chartreuse adding a distinctly herbal dimension. No named inventor is established by that early printed appearance. Modern versions vary the Chartreuse and sugar to account for contemporary palates.
Mixology View
The street name is glamorous; the drink earns it by balancing a muscular Cognac base with disciplined citrus and herbal complexity. Our separate lemon and syrup measures translate the 1925 sweetened-juice instruction into a reproducible house build.