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The Pink Millenium is a cranberry and citrus vodka base lengthened with champagne, and the name tells you exactly which new year it was invented for. The measures in the original are metric, two centilitres each of vodka and cranberry, which is a small pour by design, since the sparkling wine is meant to be most of the glass.
Building the base first and topping with champagne is the right order and not just convention. Stirring cold sparkling wine with anything knocks the bubbles flat, so the vodka, cranberry and syrup are combined separately and the champagne arrives last and undisturbed. The sugar syrup is there to keep the cranberry from reading as sharp against a dry wine.
Glass: Champagne flute | Strength: Light | Serves: 1 | Prep Time: 3 minutes
Bartenders tip: Everything needs to be cold before it meets, since there is no ice in a flute to fix a lukewarm pour. Use a dry sparkling wine rather than anything sweet, because the syrup and the cranberry have the sugar covered. Cava or a dry prosecco does the job without spending champagne money on a drink that buries it. The original lists the champagne as a dash but then tells you to fill the glass, and fill is clearly what it means.
Steps
- Stir the vodka, cranberry juice and sugar syrup together.
- Pour into a champagne flute.
- Fill with chilled champagne or dry sparkling wine, and serve.
