Remember that iconic scene in Pulp Fiction when Vince (John Travolta) delights in telling Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) they call a Quarter-Pounder a “Royale with Cheese” in France? Well the French don’t just give their burgers the Royale treatment, they are also elevate classic cocktails by adding a “Royale” to their names and Champagne to their recipes.

Drinks Digest recently sailed with luxury cruise line Ponant aboard the Le Laperouse. Its French cocktail menu featured a Mojito Royale, which switched soda for Champagne in the minty rum favourite. It was a delicious revelation!

As Difford’s Guide notes: “A Mojito topped with Champagne instead of soda. There’s posh.”

According to Vine Pair, the cocktail is also know as “The Old Cuban” and “is essentially the Mojito and French 75’s love child”. It was created by iconic bartender Audrey Saunders at New York’s Pegu Club.

Ponant also gives its Aperol Spritzes the French Royale cocktail treatment, with soda and prosecco switched for Champagne and Perrier. There’s also posh.

It turns out there are a whole swathe of Royale-style cocktails stepping up the luxury offering in bars. They range from the classic Kir Royale, which swaps still white wine for Champagne (we sipped a few of those delicious treats aboard Le Laperouse) and recently experienced a resurgence in popularity because of the popular Netflix drama Emily in Paris; to the more unexpected Whisky French 75, which switches gin for Scotch.

A Champagne Margarita recipe also features in The Cocktail Edit, a new book by Decanter contributor Alice Lascelles.

“I can’t think of a combination more hedonistic than tequila and Champagne – and this one is wickedly good,” she says. ‘”It would be a great drink to kick off a party, or even as a thirst-quenching punch. Just lengthen with a bit of sparkling or still water and charge with lots of ice. For more elegance, serve in a coupe, undiluted, over a single ice cube.”

The ingredients for making a Champagne Margarita are 50ml tequila, 25ml lime juice, 12.5ml sugar syrup and 50ml Champagne.

The first Champagne cocktail

The original Champagne Cocktail recipe was written by legendary bartender Jerry Thomas around 1859 and appeared in the “Bon Vivant’s Companion.” It simply included one sugar cube, a few dashes of Angostura bitters and Champagne.

As Vintage American Cocktails notes: “The bitters provide a nice earthy and herbal element to the cocktail, but the sugar cube doesn’t add much sweetness. The most significant contribution of the sugar cube is to give the carbonation in the Champagne a surface to atomize onto and make the drink an overwhelming display of carbonation. Like dropping a Mentos into a bottle of Coke.” 

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