Claret and Champagne Cup — The Cocktail Ontologist

Family

Cup Family — variant

Variants (4)

Cocktail Boothby's American Bar-Tender by Wm. T. Boothby (1891, p.39)

4 lemon	lemon juice — juice of four peeled lemons	acid
2 orange	orange juice — juice of two oranges	acid
2 pony	brandy	base
1 quart	claret	base
1 pony	Jamaica rum	base
1 bottle	Soda water — plain soda or champagne	dilution
2 pony	Maraschino liqueur — maraschino or some other cordial	modifier
1 pint	Rhine wine	other
4 tablespoonful	sugar — bar sugar	sweetener

Macerate the lemon and orange juice with sugar and mint in a bowl, then add rum, brandy, cordial, claret, soda or champagne, Rhine wine, cucumber peel, and fruit.
Pour into a bowl around one large lump of ice and serve in thin glassware.

Garnish: Pineapple, seedless orange, cucumber peel, and mint

Ice: Large ice block

This is a valuable large-format cup checkpoint because it joins communal wine service, cordial enrichment, and decorative fruit bowl logic in one recipe.

The bowl build, citrus maceration, and large ice block are central to the drink's identity.

Boothby's note that champagne in place of soda turns it into the Champagne Cup is historically useful and preserved here.

The Hoffman House Bartender's Guide by Charles S. Mahoney (1905, p.215)

1 lemon	lemon — Cut in slices.	acid
3 bottles	Claret wine	base
1 pint	French brandy	base
2 bottles	German seltzer water	dilution
3 bottles	Soda water — soda	dilution
3 oranges	Orange — oranges	garnish
2 wine-glasses	Raspberry ratafia — ratafia of raspberries	modifier
0.75 pint	red curacao — red Curacoa	modifier
1 pint	sherry	modifier
	borage — Some sprigs.	other
	green balm — Some sprigs.	other
	capillaire — capillaire or pounded sugar	sweetener

Stir the claret, red curacao, sherry, brandy, raspberry ratafia, sliced oranges and lemon, herbs, seltzer, and soda together in a punch bowl.
Sweeten with capillaire or pounded sugar until it ferments, let stand one hour, strain, ice well, and serve in small glasses.

Garnish: Citrus slices and herbs

Ice: Iced after straining

The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them by Hon. Wm Boothby (1908, p.35) — Boothby 1908

4 whole	Lemon juice (fresh) — juice of four peeled lemons	acid
2 whole	Orange juice (fresh) — juice of two oranges	acid
2 pony	brandy — brandy	base
1 quart	Claret wine — claret	base
1 pony	Jamaica rum	base
1 bottle	Soda water — plain soda or champagne	dilution
1 whole	Cucumber rind — peel of a cucumber	garnish
	Orange — seedless oranges	garnish
1 small whole	pineapple — pineapple	garnish
2 pony	Maraschino liqueur — maraschino or other cordial	modifier
6 sprig	mint — mint leaves	other
1 pint	Rhine wine	other
4 tablespoon	sugar — bar sugar	sweetener

Macerate the mint leaves in the sugar with the expressed citrus juices.
Add the Jamaica rum, brandy, maraschino, and claret, stirring thoroughly.
Add the soda or champagne, Rhine wine, cucumber peel, pineapple, and sliced oranges.
Pour into a bowl around a large lump of ice and serve in thin glassware.

Garnish: Pineapple, sliced oranges, cucumber rind, mint

Ice: One large lump

Nose: Wine, mint, citrus, and pineapple create an expansive party-bowl aroma.
Palate: This sits between claret cup and champagne cup, but with a notably more tropical and rum-touched mid-palate than many older cup formulas.
Finish: The finish is sparkling, citrus-led, and socially expansive.
Summary: A hybrid cup that shows the family opening toward brighter and more tropical party service.

Boothby's version matters because it preserves the hybrid cup line after the nineteenth-century foundations were already in place. It also shows a more cosmopolitan ingredient field, with rum and pineapple making the family feel less purely Anglo-vinous.

Bartenders' Manual by Bartenders Association of America (1913, p.21)

1 whole	lemon — Lemon	acid
1 pint	brandy — French brandy	base
3 bottle	claret — Claret wine	base
2 bottle	German seltzer water	dilution
3 bottle	Soda water — Soda	dilution
3 whole	Orange — Oranges	garnish
2 wineglass	Raspberry ratafia — Ratafia of raspberries	modifier
0.75 pint	Red curacoa — Red Curacoa	modifier
1 pint	sherry — Sherry	modifier
	borage — Borage	other
	green balm — Green balm	other
	capillaire or sugar — Capillaire or pounded sugar	sweetener

Stir everything together, sweeten until it ferments, and let stand one hour.
Strain, ice well, and serve in small glasses.

Related recipes

Claret and Champagne Cup, a la Brunow same-family

See also: Claret Cup, Champagne Cup, Claret and Champagne Cup, a la Brunow

Source gives this for a party of twenty.