Champagne is a drink of choice in “Ninotchka,” so it was the obvious choice for my pairing with the film.

This recipe makes 1 vegan, soy-free and gluten-free champagne cocktail.

Ingredients
1 vegan sugar cube
0.5 teaspoons bitters
2 teaspoons cognac
3 ounces champagne
orange peel (optional garnish)

Instructions
Before we start, note that while many sugars and boozes may appear vegan, many are not. We ensured all of our ingredients are vegan, soy-free and gluten-free.

Place the sugar cube at the bottom of your glass. We used our old-school champagne coupes to be more traditional and in-line with the time period of “Ninotchka,” but you can also use champagne flutes or whatever glasses you have on hand.

Pour the bitters and cognac over the sugar cube.

Fill the remaining space in your glass with champagne. If you want to make a mocktail version of this, there are some great non-alcoholic wines, including prosecco, available in stores. You can also omit the cognac and bitters or replace them with a little syrup.

Garnish with a curly bit of orange peel. (We omitted that step because orange peels make my tongue numb.)

Serve and enjoy with “Ninotchka!”

The Easy Route
If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you can get a champagne cocktail delivered, please share those details in the comments.

I also know several brands are upping their single-serve cocktail game, so if you know of a champagne cocktail that fits that description, it would be wonderful if you could share that in the comments as well.

The Pairing
In “Ninotchka,” Greta Garbo is absolutely luminous as the titular character, a Russian envoy sent to Paris to negotiate with a duchess (Ina Claire) about the surrender of their jewelry.

It is easy to believe this dramatic star as Ninotchka as she moves through the beginning of the film as a very stern, by-the-book person who sees the visit to Paris as a bit of cultural anthropology.

She quickly forms a relationship with the duchess’s lawyer, Leon (Melvyn Douglas). They are adversarial at points, but he quickly becomes enamored with her.

Ninotchka slowly lowers her guard as she learns more of the French customs. Her learned lightness is purely joyful, and one of the many reasons why I find myself watching “Ninotchka” over and over.

The film was widely billed with the tagline “Garbo Laughs!” Hopefully, it will make you giggle a bit, too, especially if you enjoy a champagne cocktail or two while watching.

If you decide to make this cocktail and/or watch “Ninotchka,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes