French 75

The French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. Such is the drink’s standing it is almost the very definition of a classic cocktail.

Our Favourite Recipe:

45ml Gin

15ml Lemon Juice

7.5ml Sugar Syrup

Top up with Champagne

As taken from Difford, Simon. Diffordsguide Cocktails, The Bartender’s Bible. 10^th Edition.

History/Origins:

One of the drink’s first recorded recipes was in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930; Lucius Beebe from The Stork Club Bar Book sums up its history nicely:

“In the same family as the various versions of champagne cocktail is the celebrated French 75, an elixir which, if it did not actually have its origin in the first of the German wars, at least came to the general attention of American drinkers at that time and was immediately enshrined in the pharmacopoeia of alcohol artistry in the United States upon the conclusion of hostilities in 1919.”

Like many drinks, the French 75 ‘s origins finds it’s establishment divisive in opinion, made all the more foggy by its conception at the start of the twentieth century.

One school of thought suggests that it was named in 1925 by the Scot, Harry MacElhone at his namesake saloon ‘Harry’s American Bar’ based in Paris. The inspiration for such a title was apparently due as a tribute to the 75mm Howitzer field gun that the French and Americans wielded and was located on their tanks in World War I; it had become a well-publicized piece of machinery praised for its accuracy and quickness. The French 75 was said to have such a kick that if felt like being hit by that piece of weaponry. Indeed, the novelist Alec Waugh (1898-1981) named it “the most powerful drink in the world.”

Gin was often replaced by another substance like tequila, cognac or vodka; in fact nearly any other spirit will have probably been blended at some point with champagne.

In spite of this, Harry did not claim this cocktail to be one of his own. Instead in his own book, ‘The ABC of Mixing Drinks,’ he acknowledged that this particular cocktail came from Macgarry of Buck’s Club, London.

Certainly, it was not in the 1920’s that a concoction of gin and champagne first came to be mixed together. In the 19^th Century there are many stories concerning noble gentlemen like Charles Dickens, and the Prince of Wales enjoying and even requesting such a combination. Certainly, the ‘Champagne Cup’ which Craddock writes about, is a mixture of citrus juice and champagne, not far different to the French 75. It is just that this drink was finally formally named and thus the drink came to be be celebrated and recognised in a more official way. The unique and symbolic name, as well as it finally being written down by Craddock would have meant that its appeal and popularity sky-rocketed. Especially as it traveled across the Atlantic, and found its way in The Stork Club, New York which would have helped to make the cocktail truly iconic in the years following the war. In fact by 1942 the French 75 had entered into popular media through the film ‘Casablanca, ’ in which Yvonne’s German boyfriend orders the drink at the bar.

Original Recipe:

2/3 Gin

1/3 Lemon Juice

1 spoonful Powdered Sugar

Add Champagne

“Hits with remarkable precision.”

The Savoy Cocktail Book, Harry Craddock. 1930.

How to make it:

Add Gin, Lemon juice and sugar syrup to a cocktail maker and shake with ice. Strain into a flute glass, and fill up with champagne

You do not want the champagne to be overly sweet, so try using a brut.

How to drink it:

Perfect as a celebratory drink or to welcome in a clear bright dusky evening. It’s refreshing taste hides its secretly intoxicating power so beware.