The Marilyn Monroe Champagne Cocktail Highlights The Star's Favorite Drink

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but a Marilyn Monroe cocktail could be your new best friend at happy hour. Monroe was the epitome of old Hollywood glamor, and the adult beverage named for the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" actor exudes the same sentiment. To wit, it features the alcohol you would expect someone as seemingly sophisticated as she was to drink: Champagne.  

The Marilyn Monroe cocktail may start with this French bubbly as its base, but to make it as iconic as the model and singer, the drink includes apple brandy (which is likely a nod to the Big Apple), grenadine (a pomegranate-based syrup), and maraschino cherries. To make, simply shake all the liquid ingredients with ice, strain into a martini glass, add a cherry or two, and you will have created a ruby red drink that will have you thinking of Monroe's vibrant and signature red lipstick.

So, what makes a Marilyn Monroe cocktail unique beyond the Champagne she loved? The drink's origin story has been traced to the Waldorf Astoria hotel, which was near to where Monroe filmed the memorable scene from "The Seven Year Itch" where she was clad in a white dress and standing over a subway grate. If you've seen the movie you know the blond bombshell immortalized her love for this fizzy drink and created a craze for Champagne and potato chips in a scene where she is seen with her costar, Tom Ewell, noshing and sipping on the combo.

Throughout her career, Monroe became notably linked to Champagne, as she seemingly always held a coupe filled with this effervescent drink. In fact, she once quipped, "I go to bed with a few drops of Chanel N° 5, and I wake up each morning to a glass of Piper-Heidsieck; it warms me up." But her love for Champagne was not limited to drinking. Monroe once shunned hot water and famously took a bath in 350 bottles of this sparkling wine. In addition to Piper-Heidsieck, she was also a fan of Dom Perignon. It was a bottle — or two — of this brand of Champagne that famed photographer Bert Stern used to woo Monroe to pose for him for what would be her final photo shoot before her death. Thankfully, her namesake cocktail doesn't require Monroe's expensive Dom Perignon or Piper-Heidsieck either, you can use whatever your wallet can afford.