French 75

Legend has it that the French 75 cocktail was invented in France during the First World War and named after the French 75 recoilless canon, renowned for being able to keep up a rapid rate of fire with high accuracy.  It is rumored to have quite a kick, and it is a little stronger than most champagne cocktails.  Since it’s almost 100 years old, there are a lot of recipe variations available.  (I’ve seen one that uses gin, calvados, and absinthe, and others substitute cognac for the gin.)  Feel free to do some research and experiment if this version is not to your taste.  Like most champagne cocktails, it’s easy to make, fun to drink, and looks elegant in a flute. 

The original French recipe only calls for four ingredients, champagne included, and no mixing or shaking.  It uses a lot less gin, so I’ve adjusted my recipe closer to most American recipes.  Unless you keep your gin in the freezer and your lemons in the fridge, you will want to either shake or stir the non-champagne ingredients to chill them down so they don’t warm up your champagne.  Note that if you’re using sweeter champagne, you may want to cut back on the simple syrup.  The recipe below will make about two ounces, and most flutes only hold around six, so you can use the shaker contents for two cocktails if you want to have more champagne in the mix (this is closer to the original recipe).  This cocktail is worth a little extra effort to get it right.  You should really enjoy the interplay of the botanicals in the gin with the fruit in the champagne.

French 75 (with acknowledgement to 1001cocktails.com)

1 oz Bombay Sapphire® Gin

½ oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ oz simple syrup

4-5oz well chilled champagne

Combine gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup with cracked ice in a shaker.  Shake like you’re trying to whip up a nice froth on a cup of chocolat chaud while thinking of Juliette Binoche.  Strain into a chilled champagne flute and fill with ice cold champagne.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry in the glass and a small orange wedge on the lip.  Get ready for a treat. 

 

Nuit de Folie

While doing my intensive research on the French Aphrodisiaque cocktail, I noticed that the link trace at the top of the page included “Boissons Aphrodisiaques” (aphrodisiac drinks).  Being naturally curious on this topic, I clicked on the link and scanned the list of cocktails.  Nuit de Folie (night of madness) caught my eye.  That sounded like fun, so I clicked through.  The recipe is fairly simple with only three ingredients: grapefruit juice (I used white), rum, and framboise.  They specify Havana Club Cuban rum, which is not available in the US.  I would normally substitute Gosling’s Black Seal®, one of my favorite rums, but when mixed with the grapefruit juice it resulted in a rather unattractive hue, so I decided to use a light rum (I ended up using Bacardi®).  The original proportions of the Nuit de Folie were two parts grapefruit juice to one part rum.  This resulted in a rather tart cocktail, so after experimentation I reversed the proportions to two parts rum to one part grapefruit juice.  Feel free to experiment, especially if you like grapefruit juice.  You could also try adding simple syrup to sweeten it a little.

Nuit de Folie  (with acknowledgement to 1001cocktails.com)

2 oz light rum

1 oz grapefruit juice

.5 oz framboise liqueur

Combine ingredients with cracked ice in a shaker.  Shake friskily while thinking of Emmanuelle Béart.  Strain into the cocktail glass.  This cocktail can use some color, so garnish with a maraschino cherry.  Get ready for the night. 

 

Aphrodisiaque

I found Aphrodisiaque while exploring a French cocktail site as part of a self-imposed assignment for my French class to pass out a set of French cocktail recipes to the class.  French cocktail style differs from American, but both result in great cocktails.  When I adapt a French recipe for the American audience, I tend to slightly increase the amounts of liquor and liqueurs, to decrease the amounts of lemon juice and fruit juice, and to decrease or eliminate the water or club soda.  Cocktails (as opposed to simple drinks) cost a lot more in Europe, so they tend to have more “filler” to stretch out the time it takes to drink them.  Not a bad idea under the circumstances, but not always what American drinkers are looking for.  The French recipe for the Aphrodisiaque includes filling the glass with Perrier® (or club soda/ seltzer), which I have omitted.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for a cocktail with lower Alcohol by Volume (ABV), the French style may be a good way to go.  Think of the differences between how you would mix a cocktail for serving in a highball glass as opposed to a cocktail glass (see Dark and Stormy for an example).

As for the name, I decided to test the Aphrodisiaque out on my wife.  While she really enjoyed it (the cocktail, that is), it did not appear to have any more aphrodisiac affect than any other drink.  Apparently, even the French have not yet perfected aphrodisiac science.  C’est la vie!

Aphrodisiaque  (with acknowledgement to 1001cocktails.com)

1 ½  oz. Bombay Sapphire® Gin

1 ½  oz. Grand Marnier® or Cointreau® (or Triple Sec)

Juice of ½ lemon (about 1 oz.)

Rim a chilled cocktail glass with fine sugar.  Combine ingredients with cracked ice in a shaker.  Shake lovingly while thinking of Julie Delpy.  Strain into the cocktail glass.  Add some chilled Perrier® if you feel the need.  Garnish with a pair of maraschino cherries.  Enjoy!

 

French Martini

I had my first French Martini at First Press on a rainy evening in San Francisco.  I loved it.  The combination of raspberry and pineapple was intriguing.  I jotted down the ingredients and, after a little experimentation at home, came up with proportions I liked.  As you get into French cocktails, you will discover that they use a lot of fruit liqueurs.  Chambord® is made from raspberry (framboise) and you can substitute other framboise liqueurs, and even Bonny Doon® Framboise from California, which is quite good.  Blackberry (mûre) is another popular fruit, as is black currant (cassis).  When I checked out a French cocktail site for another French Martini recette, I discovered that they used regular vodka, mûres instead of framboises, and left out the pineapple juice.  I’ve put my favorite below, and I’ll let you be the judge of which one you like better.  BTW, you can cruise French cocktail sites without being able to read French if you know the basics of mixing cocktails and have access to a good online dictionary.  Rather than trying to convert all the measurements for the ingredients, look at the ratios between ingredients and substitute measures you’re used to using.  If you can’t figure something out, drop me an email.

French Martini (with acknowledgement to First Press)

2 oz. Svedka® Raspberry Vodka (or substitute Absolut® Raspberri)

½  oz Chambord (or other framboise liqueur – see above)

2 oz. pineapple juice

Combine ingredients with cracked ice in a shaker.  Shake patriotically while humming a verse of La Marseillaise (watch “Casablanca” if you don’t know the tune).  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.    Garnish with a twist of lemon peel.  Enjoy!

Next time, the French Aphrodisiaque cocktail. Magnifique!