Cava

Toast to a new year, a new you, or just another Tuesday with lychee punch, a low-ABV kombucha spritz, or a bubbly sbagliato.

Affordable, bubbly, and delicious.

Skip the $$$ vintage bubbly for this cocktail recipe. Go with an affordable Champagne, cava, Prosecco, or other dry sparkler for this spritz recipe.

Named for bar and spirits director Brian Bartels's former address, this is a more complex take on a Mimosa.

Don't use your best Champagne for this dessert--any affordable bottle of Cava or Prosecco will do. The key ingredient in this machine-free sorbet is the apricots: Choose the ripest, most fragrant ones you can find.

This is an especially refreshing take on the cosmopolitan cocktail. You can batch the cosmo mix up to 10 hours in advance to cut down on last-minute fuss at your next cocktail-worthy occasion. (If you’d like to mix it together earlier than that, add the lime juice at the last minute.) To retain maximum fizz, pour the chilled club soda and sparkling wine into each ice-filled glass first—then you don’t need to rigorously stir to mix the bubbles into the heavier cocktail base. This recipe makes eno.…

This cocktail is an Employees Only variation on the Champagne Cocktail (page 56). In champagne production, when the pinot noir skins are left to touch the juice, they add color and a soft touch of tannins. The result is some of the best aperitif wine available: rosé champagne. Other sparkling wine producers emulate this with rosé varietals, most notably the Spanish with Cava. These wines are truly magnificent, and their affordability makes them very suitable for mixed drinks. Cava rosé has a body and level of dryness ideal for adding sugar, bitters, and Campari to create a sultry variation on the classic Champagne Cocktail. This cocktail is very sexy and inviting and makes a superb aperitif, as well as a great choice for pairing with antipasti, mezes, tapas, or seafood appetizers.

This festive bubbly white sangria comes with a snack: Each glass is filled with sweet, fresh fruit. The recipe calls for Licor43, a Spanish liqueur that's flavored with vanilla.

Ninety-nine percent of cava—Spanish sparkling wine—is made in Catalonia. So it's natural that the bubbly beverage has found its way into many elegant Catalan desserts. Here it is combined with the luscious flavors and bright colors of strawberries and oranges in a refreshing sorbet.

After experiencing a dazzling meal and the gracious hospitality of Martín Berasategui, one of the top Basque chefs, at the restaurant that bears his name in Lasarte-Oria, he gave us a final taste of his talent in a wonderfully refreshing granizado de cava. The following concoction I devised is very nearly the same, and surprisingly simple.