French 75 Cocktail (1920's)
INGREDIENTS:
3 cl gin
2 dashes simple syrup
1.5 cl lemon juice
6 cl Champagne
Combine gin, syrup, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into an iced champagne glass. Top up with Champagne. Stir gently.
Serve fluted champagne glass
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History
The Bar:
Harry's New York Bar in Paris
French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, Champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. It is also called a 75 Cocktail, or in French simple a "Soixante Quinze"
The drink dates to World War I, and an early form was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris - later Harry's New York Bar - by Harry MacElhone. The combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm field gun.
The drink's with its current name and recipe developed over the 1920's, though similar drinks date to the 19th century. In the 19th century, the "Champagne Cup" was a popular cocktail, consisting of champagne, lemon juice, sugar, and ice. Gin was sometimes added, yielding a drink much like the French 75.
The drink was first recorded as the "75" in "Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails" (the 1922 edition), by Harry MacElhone, and in the same year in Robert Vermeire's "Cocktails:How to Mix Them", which credits the drink to MacElhone. However, the recipes differed from the current form - MacElhone's version consisted of Calvados, gin, grenadine, and absinthe, while Vermeire added lemon juice.
The recipe took its now-classic form in "Here's How"> by Judge Jr (1927), consisting of gin, sugar, lemon juice, and champagne. This recipe was republished with the embellished name "French 75" in "The Savoy Cocktail Book" (1930). Some later cocktail books us Cognac instead of gin, such as "The fine Art of Mixing Drinks" by David Embury.
The French 75 was popularized in America at the Stork Club in NYC, and appears in the movie "Casablanca" (1942).
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