The French "75" Cocktail

"Hits with remarkable precision."  

-Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book

We concede that this is truly the best way to make a French 75.  Slightly adapted from The Savoy Cocktail Book:

The French "75" Cocktail

2 ounces Dry Gin 

1 ounce Fresh Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon Sugar or Simple Syrup

Shake the above ingredients together with ice in a cocktail shaker; strain into an appropriate glass and fill with Champagne.

If you make these for guests, expect to spend the evening making them over and over again.

Blood Orange French 75s

Blood Orange French 75s are an exquisite, temporal concoction, as blood oranges are only available in the winter months (as in, January and February). To make them: extract the juice from one or several blood oranges, and create a mixture that is half blood orange juice, half dry gin. Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into champagne flutes, filling one-third to half full. Top off glasses with champagne. Imbibe and enjoy.

This is a wonderful solution for all sorts of social gatherings, from dinners to improvised birthday parties.

Champagne Cocktail

I first became aware of the existence of the Champagne Cocktail when I first became aware of the film Casablanca.  Set in French Morocco during the second World War, it's a gorgeous melodrama with everyone in it, from Bogart and Bergman to Lorre and Veidt.  The subject of the film is the refugee trail that the war brought about, so upon reflection, it takes a stretch of the imagination to believe that these people have time to sit around Rick's Café Américain and drink champagne cocktails, but they do. Paul Henreid's character orders one at the bar as a cover for the fact that he's meeting with a member of the Free French.

Place a sugar cube in a champagne glass and saturate with Angostura bitters. Crush the sugar cube and make sure it is well combined with the bitters. Fill glass with chilled champagne, and imbibe. Pairs well with celebrations of all kinds and the film Casablanca.


It's also worthwhile to quote The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 with recipes compiled by Harry Craddock:


Put into a wine glass one lump of Sugar, and saturate it with Angostura Bitters. Having added to this 1 lump of Ice, fill the glass with Champagne, squeeze on top a piece of lemon peel, and serve with a slice of orange.

The French 75, Part I.

The French 75 is a historic cocktail which, strangely enough, can be made with gin and Champagne, or Cognac and Champagne. It was invented either during World War I or immediately thereafter, and it is named after the French 75mm field gun. As far as I can tell, the combination of gin and Champagne predates the Cognac and Champagne version that is perhaps more familiar today. (I intend to examine the question more closely, but as the 1930 Savoy cocktail book gives the recipe as involving gin and Champagne with no variations, I am inclined to believe that the Cognac is a later addition.)

That said, I will now furnish you with the French 75 recipe with Cognac, because it is well worth sharing:

1 ounce Cognac

a teaspoon of sugar

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

Champagne to fill the glass

Combine the Cognac, sugar, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a well-chilled Champagne glass, and fill to the top with Champagne.

More on other variations later, especially the classic gin and Champagne version. Also, in the near future: Corpse Revivers.