Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Tequila & Mezcal Cocktails

Sparkling Rose

By
Linnea Covington
Linnea Covington
Linnea Covington
Linnea Covington is a Denver freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. She covers food, drinks, travel and culture.
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Updated 01/30/22
A dark pink sparkling cocktail in a wide, angular coupe pictured against a black background

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

Tequila and other agave spirits can sometimes overpower more delicate flavors in a cocktail, but in this pink drink created by Jaime Salas for Milagro tequila, the base spirit is just one layer of many. At first, you’ll get that unmistakable wave of roasted agave before the fresh watermelon juice hits, carried by the bubbles of crisp, dry sparkling rosé. The aptly-named Sparkling Rose is versatile enough to crowd-please at a summer barbecue or brighten up date night by the fire on a cold winter’s eve thanks to its approachable-yet-unique flavor profile and perennially easy-to-find ingredients.

If we’re getting granular, this cocktail is essentially a tequila French 75—it’s hard to go wrong with a template as universally-beloved as this one, and given that the French 75 works just as well with gin as it does its (alleged) original cognac base, swapping in another spirit like tequila isn’t as much of a gamble as one might think. The Sparkling Rose recipe is also incredibly easy to scale up if you’re hosting a crowd (just be sure to add the sparkling wine as close to serving time as possible so as to preserve the integrity of the bubbles).

While Salas naturally used Milagro in his recipe, there are plenty of silver tequilas that could work well in this drink when making a round or two at home. Simply use your go-to, or take it as a challenge to see which brand works best from one cocktail to the next. Bartending is both an art and a science, so never be afraid to experiment, as long as you’re doing so safely, of course—by this we mean don’t try lighting things on fire or sabering a bottle of bubbles after drinking multiple cocktails (do these things beforehand instead). Either way, here’s how to make the perfect pink sparkling tequila cocktail at home.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces silver tequila
  • 3/4 ounce watermelon juice
  • 1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1/4 ounce simple syrup
  • 2 ounces brut rosé sparkling wine, to top

Steps

  1. Add the tequila, watermelon juice, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.

  2. Strain into a coupe glass.

  3. Top with the sparkling rosé.