The Brooks’s Club in London was founded as an aristocratic order for London’s most distinguished mess of lords, barons and dukes. The Black Velvet is said to have originated amidst these men in 1861. Upon the death of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, champagne did not seem an appropriate sympathy cocktail, so it can be surmised that a dark beer was somber enough to foil the celebratory implication of bubbles. While it does seem like a travesty to mix champagne with anything but a plate of oysters, it must be said that stout (another worthy bivalve companion), plays remarkably well with its unsuspecting spouse.