crusade

1 1/2 oz Pousse-Rapiere Orange Armagnac Liqueur
Mumm Napa Champagne

Add liqueur to a Champagne flute and top off with sparkling wine.

Eventually Andrea arrived from her hair appointment and we ordered a flatbread pizza and a pair of drinks off of the Beehive's Champagne cocktail list. Last time I ordered the yellow Chartreuse and St. Germain-laden Yellow Jacket, and this time I went with the Crusade. I was surprised when Russ only poured from one bottle before topping the drink off with sparkling wine since the menu read that it was "Armagnac & Orange Liqueur". He then showed us the bottle that the two were combined in one. My later research tells me that the drink originates from Gascony in France and is often called a Pousse-Rapiere (rapier-sword thrust). Often the drink is made with equal parts of Armagnac and orange liqueur, and at least one Armagnac house has combined the two in one, a liqueur d'orange a l'Armagnac, which suggests how popular this cocktail is in France. The end result was a pretty intense orange flavor unlike most other orange liqueurs (perhaps Grand Marnier as an exception) with a sweetness wave on top of the sparkling wine's crispness. Normally this drink would be had as an apertif, but it worked rather well with the food.