Confession: I love champagne cocktails. All of them. Put champagne in a cocktail and I’ll like it. (Probably, anyway.) I’m so glad we finally got to the sparkling wine part of wine month!
If you need proof, just look at the list of champagne-based cocktails I’ve shared with you over nearly two years: Lavender Champagne Cocktail, Champagne Jell-O Shots and Meyer Lemon Drop Champagne Punch — even a Champagne Cocktail Bar.
And then I remembered the Airmail cocktail. I first shared this recipe in the first two months of starting this blog, and because that feels like so long ago, I figure it’s high time to bring it up again.
Pour champagne over a base of gold rum, lime juice and honey and you’ve got a classy, classy cocktail from the days when the postal service ruled. (Let’s be honest, it totally still does!)
When I stumbled across a recipe for the Airmail cocktail a while back, I knew I had to make it as soon as I learned it is often served with a postage stamp for garnish. This letter-writing nerd is so happy!
This classy cocktail was first introduced in Esquire’s 1949 Handbook for Hosts.
My love for mail probably stems from having family overseas. Before computers and cell phone plans, my grandparents in South Africa would send us aerogrammes each week.
Aerogrammes are thin, folded papers that doubled as both the letter and the envelope. (The United States had them too, but the USPS discontinued them in 2007. )
Because postage was pre-paid on aerogrammes, they were cheaper to send via airmail than regular letters, so we got a lot of these.
I love going through my mom’s boxes of old letters and stamp collection to study the elaborate postal illustrations from around the world. (Nerd alert, I know.)
At least now I can do it with an amazing champagne cocktail! // susannah
P.S. Don’t miss any of wine expert Rachel von Sturmer‘s wine month guides: red, white, rosé and sparkling!
Airmail Cocktail
ingredients
- 2 ounces gold rum
- ½ ounce lime juice
- 1 teaspoon honey see notes
- 5 ounces brut champagne
- 1 postage stamp for garnish
instructions
- Add rum, lime juice and honey to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously.
- Pour into a Collins glass. Slowly top with champagne. Garnish with a postage stamp, if desired.
notes
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Anne says
It would be so cute if this was on a menu in a tourist town and they gave you a postcard with the drink to fill out!
Erin @ The Speckled Palate says
Like you, I’m a big fan of snail mail… and champagne cocktails. I’ve never tried an Airmail before, but you know I’ve got to give it a go now!
Emily says
Now that I’m pregnant I’m REALLY craving this! YUM!