For cognac cocktail recipes, you should check out our new Cognac Drinks & Cocktails section. Every week a new cocktail!

I must say I am not a big fan of sweet cocktails. Okay, I have a Cognac tonic from time to time – I stopped using that yellow tonic and now use Fever Tree. Cocktails and Cognac are quite a big deal at the moment – they get more and more popular, not only in the United States.

Fever Tree tonic

Since 1996 the Cognac Institution BNIC promotes Cognac also as mixdrink for ice and cocktails. Not only the BNIC but other Cognac houses, like Bisquit in South Africa for example, promote a drink called Summit. What’s it all about?

Summit Cocktail

Since 2005 there is a “Semaine de Cognac” happening in the region of Poitou-Charentes: It is a week of Cognac, round about 300 restaurants, bars and merchants take part; presenting new creations, dishes and tasting eaux-de-vie.

During the semaine de Cognac there are 17 known barkeepers, calling themselves Mixologists recently: They come from all over the world.  The goal is to find the ultimate Cognac cocktail. A drink which should be easy to mix, beautiful in terms of color and visual appearance and doable with ingredients, that are available all over the world.
And of course it should be a tasty cocktail.

After some days of work, the mixologists presented a particular drink, the Summit was born:

• 4 slices of ginger
• 1 lime slice
• 4 cl VSOP Cognac
• 6 cl lemonade
• a fine peel of cucumber

Now how do you do it?

Add lime and ginger into a glass and add 2 cl of Cognac, add ice and stir. Now add the rest of the Cognac and also the lemonade – finally add the cucumber peel. Done!
(for the Summit mixers’ names, please see at the bottom of this article)

If you want to mix cocktails with cocktails, you need a lemon press. That’s for sure. A shaker would be good, a bar spoon as well.

For serving one needs the right glass: Sometimes you’ll need a long drink glass, champagne fluite , trumbler or a highball glass.

Now here comes the important part: Do NOT use excellent Cognac for mix drinks. Do NOT use too expensive Cognac. I tell you why: Even when the greatest connoisseurs claim to taste it – they simply can’t tell if it’s a VS or a XO in a cocktail. There are too many other notes, strong aromas which influence the taste.

So take a V.S. or a V.S.O.P. at a reasonable price. Here are the other 29 top cocktails:

Alba

• 3 cl Cognac
• 2 cl orange juice
• 1 cl raspberry juice
• 1 slice of orange
• Ice cubes

Cognac, orange juice and rasperry juice in the shaker, together with the ice cubes… and into a pre-cooled glass, orange slice on top, done.

Alexander Cocktail

Alexander

• 4 cl Cognac
• 3 cl Crème de Cacao
• 3 cl cream
• Cacao powder or muscat
• ice cubes

Fill the shaker with ice, Cognac, crème and cream. Mix well, give into a tumbler glass and finish with some cacao or muscate powder.

Arago

• 2 cl Cognac
• 2 cl Crème de Banane
• some crème fraîche
• a bit of real syrup
• some ice cubes

Putt the ice cubes into the shaker, then the other ingredients. Shake and pour it through a filter into the glass. Voila!

Banana Bliss

• 2 cl Cognac
• 2 cl Crème de Banane
• two ice cubes

Banana Bliss

Put two ice cubes and the other ingredients into a mix glass. Stir and pour into a tumbler glass.

Between the sheets (That’s a classic)

• 3 cl Cognac
• 3 cl white Rum
• 3 cl Cointreau
• 3 cl lemon juice
• 1 slice of lemon
• crunched ice

Shake ingredients together with the crunched ice, decorate with the lemon slice.

Beverly Hills

• 2cl Cognac
• 4 cl Triple sec
• 1 cl Kalhua (Coffee liqueur)
• ice cubes

Give ingredients in shaker, mix well – pour into cocktail glass.

Bomber

• 4 cl Cognac
• 2 cl Vodka
• 2 cl Cointreau
• Ice cubes

Mix all ingredients and serve on ice.

Bora Bora Cocktail

Bora Bora

• 2 cl Cognac
• 2 cl Vodka
• 2 cl Cherry brandy
• 2 cl Picon (French aperitif)
• four ice cubes

Mix all ingredients and serve in cocktail glass.

Brandy Daisy

• 2 cl Cognac
• lemon juice of half a lemon
• a tiny bit of Grenadine
• Sparkling water
• ice cubes

Put ice cubes, cognac and lemon juice into the shaker. Add a tiny bit of Grenadine and shake well. Now, into the cocktail glass and add mineral water.

Baltimore Egg Nogg

• 3 cl Cognac
• 4,5 cl Madeira
• 1,5 cl Jamaica Rum
• real sugar syrup (two spoons)
• 1 egg
• 6 cl crème
• 120 ml of milk
• Muscat
• ice cubes

Give all ingredients but milk and Muscat into shaker. Ice always first. Now mix well and pour into a collins glass. Add milk and at the end a bit of Muscat powder.

Café Brûlot for 8 persons

• 0,25 liter of Cognac
• the peel  of one orange
• the peel of one lemon
• 8 cloves
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 cinnamon stick
• 2 lump sugar
• half a liter hot coffee

Mix all ingredients but sugar and coffee in a fireproof bowl and start to heat it. Add a lump of sugar, let it melt and stir well. Add coffee.

You take the second lump sugar and drown it in Cognac, put it on a spoon and burn it. The burning piece of sugar gets dipped in the bowl. The surface starts to burn, serve it in mocha cups.

Champagne Cocktail

• 1 lump sugar
• a bit of Angostura
• 2 cl Cognac
• 8 cl Champagne
• 1 slice of orange

A piece of sugar gets dipped in Angostura and place into champagne glass. Add Cognac, add Champagne. Decorate with the slice of orange – done.

Pick-Me-Up

Champagne Pick-me-up

• 2 cl Cognac
• 2 cl Orange juice
• a bit of Grenadine
• ice cubes
• cooled Champagne

Give all ingredients but Champagne into shaker, mix it. Pour into Champagne glass, add Champagne, serve.

Cognac Horse’s Neck

• Some lemon peel
• 2 cl Cognac
• Ginger Ale
• ice cubes

Add ingredients, Ginger Ale comes last.

Corpse Reviver

Corpse Reviver

I have a hangover what can I do about it? If you have a hangover, have this drink and you’ll be better. At least it’s what they say.

• 3 cl Cognac
• 3 cl Fernet Branca
• 2 cl Crème de menthe blanche
• four ice cubes

Mix all ingredients – serve in cocktail glass

Devil’s milk

• 0.5 cl raspberry syrup
• 2 cl Cognac
• fresh milk
• fresh raspberries
• three ice vubes

Mix ice cubes with syrup and Cognac. Add milk and stir well. Decorate with raspberry.

French Sherbet

• 1 cl Cognac
• 1 cl cherry brandy
• some real sugar syrup
• a bit of Angostura
• Champagne
• Cherry ice crème

Mix all ingredients but Champagne and ice, pour into collins glass and stir. Now add Champagne and finally a good spoon of crème cerry ice. Wow…

French Green Dragon

• 4,5 cl Cognac
• 4,5 cl green Chartreuse
• ice cubes

Shake all ingredients, serve in cocktail glass

Japanese Cocktail

• 6 cl Cognac
• some almond oil
• a bit of Angostura
• a bit of lemon peel
• crunched ice

Give all ingredients into shaker and mix well, pout in cocktail glass and decorate with lemon peel

Mint-Julep Au Cognac

Mint-Julep Au Cognac

Coming from the South of the United States of America, this cocktail normally gets served with Bourbon. But of course you can also do it with Cognac.

• 4 fresh mint branches
• 6 cl Cognac
• Soda
• sugar
• crunched ice
• Powder sugar

take off the lint leaves from the branches, mix those with sugar, cognac and water in a bar glass. Stir until the sugar melts. Now add crushed ice and stir. Clean the branches, put it into the powder sugar and use it as decoration for the drink.

You may want to add a sense of Angostura or Rum.

Olympic

• 2 cl Cognac
• 2 cl fresh orange juice
• 2 cl Curacao

Shake well, done.

Pousse Café

Pousse Café

• Grenadine
• brown crème de cacao
• Marschino
• Orange Curacao
• green crème de menthe
• Parfait Amour (French liqueur)
• Cognac

- or -

• Grenadine
• Yellow Chartreuse
• Crème de Cassis
• white Crème de Cacao
• green Chartreuse
• Cognac

Prince Charles

• 6 cl Cognac
• 4 cl Drambhuie
• 4 cl lemon juice
• three ice cubes

Ice cubes into shaker, mix all ingredients, pour into cocktail glass.

Rolls Royce

Rolls Royce

• 3 cl Cognac
• 3 cl Cointreau
• 6 cl Orange juice
• 1 white of an egg
• ice cube

Mix all ingredients well.

Side Car

A classic! Apparently the drink became famous in Harry’s Bar in Paris.

• 8 cl Cognac
• 1 cl Cointreau
• 2 cl lemon juice
• lemon peel
• crunched ice

All ingredients but peel get shaked. Decorate with lemon peel in the end.

Sour

Sour Cocktail

• 2 cl Cognac
• 1 cl lime juice
• a bit of real sugar syrup
• 1 cherry

Give all ingredients into the shaker but the cerry, mix, serve – add the cherry for decoration.

Volga

Vodka based cocktail - 1 glass of tomato juice

• 3 cl vodka
• 1 cl cognac
• freshly ground pepper
• celery salt

Cognac-Fizz

Egg based cocktail (in shaker with crushed ice) :

• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 of an egg yolk
• 1 teaspoonful sugar
• 5 cl of cognac

Ice edge of glace with some sugar and decorate with a slice of lemon.

And here is the list of the Summit mixers, from all over the world:

France: Ugo Frabetti (Fouquet’s, Paris), Loïc Geslin (Régina, Paris), Hedi Mesme (Byblos, Saint-Tropez), Stephen Martin (Hilton, Arc de Triomphe, Paris), Aurélie Panhelleux (Hilton Arc de Triomphe, Paris)

USA: Jacques Bezuidenhout (San Fransisco), Dale DeGroff (Cofounder of Museum of the American Cocktail), Audrey Sanders (owner of Pegu Club, New York), David Wondrich (author) and Paul Pacult (journalist).

Germany: Uwe Christiansen (owner of 2 bars in Hamburg), Goncalo de Sousa Monteiro (Lion Bar, Hamburg), Stefan Gabanyi (Schumann’s Bar, Munich) and Markus Heinze (Sonderbar, Dreseden).

England: Salim Khury (Savoy Hotel, London), Paul Martin (Author), Charles Vexenat (Lonsdale, London) and SOmon Difford (author of the Difford Guide)

and last but not least: Stanislas Vadrna from the Redmonkeygroup, Bratislava

For cognac cocktail recipes, you should check out our new Cognac Drinks & Cocktails section. Every week a new cocktail!