Champagne is not only used as a celebratory libation but as a wake up call for your mouth. Before a meal or wine or both, bubbly not only loosens you up but also cleanses the palate and opens up your taste buds. Its getting hot and well… quite frankly its G&T weather, problem is that gin will start to dull the palate which will not mix well when you are opening up that ’82 Haut Brion.
The French 75 cocktail solves our hypothetical quandary of how to get saucy with our taste buds intact. The history of how this cocktail came to be named is almost as good as the sidecar’s. The drink was concocted in Paris by American WWI fighter pilot Raoul Lufbery. Lufbery apparently had a thing for champagne, but wanted something with more of a kick so Cognac was added. As the story goes…the combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm howitzer artillery piece, also called a “75 Cocktail”.
The original recipe seems to have gotten fumbled along the way because today it is commonly served with gin not cognac. Lufbery’s version sounds more like a classic champagne cocktail, though again in the modern champagne cocktail the brandy is sometimes nixed.
I think the gin works best playing well off the lemon juice. Though I suppose you could get seasonal about it and opt for brandy during the colder months…I digress.
Recipe
2 oz. London Dry Gin or Brandy
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. lemon juice
5 oz. Brut Champagne
Add gin, sugar, and lemon juice into shaker. Shake, strain into champagne glass. Top with brut. Garnish with twist (if brandy garnish with cherry)