This blood orange cocktail recipe layers tangy blood orange syrup, fresh blood oranges and dry sparkling white wine. The perfect spring cocktail.

Blood oranges are in season here in Europe and I cannot get enough of them. So incredibly juicy, sweet and fragrant, with stunning shades of orange and red.

This sparkling wine cocktail starts a Blood orange syrup, made from simmering fresh blood oranges with sugar and water to draw out all kinds of lovely flavour. Then it’s just topping up with sparkling wine.

You can make the syrup as a by-product for Candied blood orange slices, but if you can’t be bothered with all that faff, just roughly chop the orange and strain it out.

I always use cava for cocktails like this, it is made using the traditional method (also known as the Champagne method), where the bubbles are produced using natural yeast, rather than just added carbon dioxide. This is often not true with Prosecco, which can be made by producing a regular white wine, then just adding bubbles.

Do you have any twists on this recipe? Other tasty sauces and syrups to top up with fizzy white wine?

A juicy, tangy, bright cocktail for sunny days.

✶

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Blood orange fizz cocktail

This blood orange fizz cocktail recipe layers tangy blood orange syrup, fresh blood oranges and dry sparkling white wine. The perfect spring cocktail.

Course Cocktails

Ingredients

blood orange syrup

• 2-3 blood oranges cut into 2-3 cm chunks
• 300 g sugar

blood orange fizz cocktail

• 2 tbsp blood orange syrup
• 1 thin slice fresh blood orange
• 100 ml dry sparkling white wine (I love cava!)

Instructions

for the syrup

1. Add the sugar and 500g water to a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat. Boil until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.
   

2. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer add the orange chunks. Simmer for 30-45 minutes, until the pith looks translucent and the syrup is dark orange. 

3. Remove from the heat, strain the syrup into a heatproof container and leave to cool. Store in the fridge.

for the cocktail

1. Spoon or pour the syrup into a sparkling wine glass and gently slide in the blood orange slice. Top up with sparkling white wine. Stir gently with a spoon or cocktail stirrer to mix in the syrup if needed.