Ever heard of a Soyer Au Champagne cocktail? It’s an adult version of an ice cream float, mixing cognac with orange curaçao, maraschino liqueur and Champagne, then pouring it over ice cream.

And while it sounds like a crazy combination, it has a proud pedigree. The drink appeared on the menu at London’s first cocktail bar, Washington Refreshment Room, in 1851. And it’s still being mixed in bars centuries later.

Washington Refreshment Room was located at Soyer’s Universal Symposium of All Nations, on the site of what is now Royal Albert Hall. Soyer’s was the brainchild of French chef Alexis Soyer, who created a giant food theme park alongside the Great Exhibition of 1851. It served meals from all corners of the world to five thousand guests a day.

The bar was referred to as being “American style” because it served intricate mixed drinks, which were already popular in the United States but still a novelty in Victorian England.

Centuries later the Champagne cocktail is being championed by modern drinks historians including Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown, who feature it in Spirituous Journey: A History of Drink Book Two.

They were introduced to the cocktail by bar consultant Nick Strangeway in the early 2000s. Strangeway had been researching the history of Soyer Au Champagne while creating the drinks menu for the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. Among its claims to fame he found that it had been served to Queen Victoria.

It is still served at the Booking Office bar at St. Pancras, however they now swap out the cognac for Somerset Cider brandy.

The Soyer Au Champagne cocktail also features in Signature Cocktails by Amanda Schuster (Phaidon Press 2023). Her recipe is below.

Soyer Au Champagne cocktail

1 scoop (ideally French) vanilla ice cream
½ ounce (15 milliliters) cognac
½ ounce (15 milliliters) orange curaçao liqueur
½ ounce (15 milliliters) maraschino liqueur
Brut Champagne or other dry, sparkling wine, to top
Orange slice and/or cocktail cherry, as garnish

METHOD: Scoop the ice cream into a large coupe or Martini glass. Add the other liqueurs to the glass and top with the bubbly.
Garnish with an orange slice and/or cocktail cherry.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Andy Sewell, Signature Cocktails (Phaidon Press 2023)

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