champagne with pomegranate

i’m a big fan of adding additional flavours to sparkling wine – rhubarb schnapps and cherry liqueur have been recent favourites. i also really like the combination of grated stem ginger and fresh lime juice.

and, for 2009, i have a new favourite. several of our festive bottles of bubbles were livened up with fresh pomegranate juice* and a few of the beautiful jewel-like seeds to pop in your mouth as you sip on your drink. very beautiful to look at and delicious to sip whilst feeling (or pretending to be) sophisticated.

*halve the pomegranate and squeeze into a sieve placed over a jug/bowl. a surprising amount of juice is released – 1 pomegranate is fine for 1 bottle of bubbles – and there will be some seeds which remain unsquashed which you can pick out and put in the glasses before serving.