The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess

One way to look at drinks of course is to look at how they may have first been listed. In the case of the French 75, one of the earliest recipes is from the 1930 edition of Harry Craddock’s “The Savoy Cocktail Book”, where it is listed as:

The French “75” Cocktail:
2/3 Gin.
1/3 Lemon Juice.
1 Spoonful Powdered Sugar.
Pour into tall glass containing cracked Ice and fill up with Champagne.
“Hits with remarkable precision”

You’ll notice that instead of the champagne flute like I show here, he uses a tall (Collins?) glass which also includes some ice. Not a bad way of serving it. But you’ll also note that the instructions are rather light on the actual measurements. the “2/3” and “1/3” here is essentially indicating that he is using twice as much gin as he does lemon juice. but exaclty how much is that? And 1 spoonful of powdered sugar… is that a teaspoon, tablespoon, or just whatever they were using back in those days as a barspoon? And even if he DID list the actual measures here, the size of the glass itself would matter, because if it were a large pint glass, then he could be adding a lot of champagne, but if it were in a smaller highball glass, he may only be adding an ounce or less.

With such inexactitudes of measurements in some of these older (or in fact some modern!) bar books, it can often be diffult to really know what the drink was like as it may have been served, which means we are somewhat up to our own devices to try to really understand the ingredients being used, and try to bring them together in a crisp and balanced fashion, and perhaps one that reflects some of our own personal style of execution… which is what you see me do in this episode.

-Robert

Harry’s ABC claims to have invented this drink in 1925 and suggests a teaspoon of anis float. Comments?

...and over on Wikipedia they say that it was invented by WW1 flying ace “Raoul Lufbery"… which is the only place I’ve encountered that reference (thus making it suspect).

Adding a teaspoon of anis would really change the character of this drink. I’ll have to spin through all of my books to see if any other book refers to that as well, but I don’t recall having seen it.

I rarely drink or use champagne in cocktails so its really quite expensive to make one of these as I open the champagne and then barely use it.  Any tips in this regard?  Also, how good does the champagne have to be?

You can buy “splits” of champagne (ie. half-sized bottles), and frankly it doesn’t have to be super great stuff, but clearly something you can enjoy drinking.

Judge Jr.’s 1927 “Here’s How”, which was liberally pilfered by Craddock and his editors, gives the French 75 as follows.

“This drink is really what won the War for the Allies:  2 jiggers Gin; 1 part lemon juice; a spoonful of powdered sugar; cracked ice.  Fill up the rest of a tall glass with champagne!  [If you use club soda instead of champagne, you have a Tom Collins.]”

Another interesting one I’ve recently come across comes from Robert Vermeire’s 1922, “Cocktails: How to Mix Them.”

“‘75’ Cocktail.  Fill the shaker half full of broken ice and add: 2 dashes of Grenadine; 1 teaspoonful of Lemon Juice; 1/6 gill of Calvados; 2/6 gill of Dry Gin.  Shake well and strain into a cocktail-glass.  This cocktail was very well appreciated in Paris during the war.  It has been called after the famous light French field gun, and was introduced by Henry of Henry’s bar fame in Paris.”

In the first edition of “The ABC of Mixing Drinks” (1919) Harry MacElhone credits the drink to MacGarry of Buck’s Club, London, England.  So, it’s a British drink that gained in popularity in France during American Prohibition.

As for keeping Champagne, there is a great little item I picked up that keeps it fresh for up to two weeks.  It’s called the Metrokane Velvet Champagne sealer.  Less than $8 on Amazon.com and works really well!

The sparkling wine of this clip is called a “champagne” in the US (as a “semi-generic” term), but is does not come from the Champagne region in France so, according to French and European law, it cannot be called “champagne”. Having said that, there are very good sparkling wines which are not champagnes, and there are very bad champagnes.

Yeah… I try real hard to say “Sparkling Wine” when I’m not using real Champagne, but dang, its hard to always get that right.

To folks in Champagne, I bet that bugs them just as much as it bugs me when somebody refers to a Lemon Drop as being a Martini.

I promise to do better in the future!

bob,

i’ve enjoyed korbel. what are some american sparkling wines you’d recommend? 

blair

Blair,

There are lots and lots of great American sparkling wines. One of my go-to’s is Cuvee Mumm out of California, for a bargin sparkler, I often use one from Chateau St. Michelle a well known winery here in Washington State.

I’d recommend seeing if there are any offered by your own local wineries, and giving them a try to see what you think.

-Robert