French 75 (cocktail)
| IBA Official Cocktail | |
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| Type | Wine cocktail |
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| IBA specified ingredients* |
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| Preparation | Combine cognac, syrup, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled champagne glass. Top up with Champagne. Stir gently. |
French 75 is a cocktail originally made from cognac, Champagne, lemon juice, and sugar; however gin has now come to replace cognac. It is also called a 75 Cocktail, or in French simply a Soixante Quinze (Seventy Five).
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 barman 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 recipe of the French 75 is very similar to one of the most popular cocktails, the Tom Collins, with the Champagne replacing carbonated water. According to the recipe in Harry MacElhone's book Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, a French 75 is supposed to be served in a Highball glass. The Highball glass, which the Tom Collins Cocktail is also served in, would support the theory of French 75 being a variation of the Tom Collins.
Later variants of the French 75 use gin, a British spirit, instead of cognac.
The drink (with its current name and recipe) developed over the 1920s, 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, 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 use Cognac instead of gin, such as The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury.
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