Russian Spring Punch

A sophisticated sparkling cocktail marrying vodka with crème de cassis, fresh lemon, and champagne for an elegant berry-citrus celebration.

The Russian Spring Punch was created by Dick Bradsell in London in the 1980s under the most pragmatic of circumstances — a cocktail born from friendship, creative problem-solving, and an acute awareness of budget constraints. Bradsell, who could not recall in later interviews precisely which bar he was working at when inspiration struck — possibly the Zanzibar, possibly Fred's — explained in a 1998 CLASS magazine interview and again in 2015 that he invented the drink for friends Rebecca du Pont de Bie and Peter Kent, who were hosting a cocktail party in their Knightsbridge flat but lacked the funds to provide enough sparkling wine for a full evening. His solution was elegant: he prepared a base of vodka, fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and crème de cassis in each guest's glass before the party, then invited every guest to bring their own bottle of champagne. As each bottle was opened, it was poured over the prepared base in each glass, completing the cocktail. The better the champagne a guest brought, the better their own drink. Bradsell described what followed as genuinely alarming: the combination was far stronger than it appeared, and guests began falling down stairs and dancing in wild abandon. He named it the Russian Spring Punch using simple logic: Russian for the vodka, Spring because the sour-plus-champagne structure resembled a Collins or Fizz — cocktails traditionally associated with warmer months. It is now an IBA Contemporary Classic.