The Sky Wave Gin French 75 Recipe

This Sky Wave Gin French 75 recipe is our take on the classic French 75, created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris—later Harry’s New York Bar—by barman Harry MacElhone. Sky Wave Gin complements the lemon juice perfectly, and adds a lingering spicy twist at the end.

Easy 1 Serving

Ingredients

35 ml of Sky Wave Gin
20 ml of lemon juice (fresh is best, use a little more if using a juicer)
10 ml of simple sugar syrup (such as Fruiss)
75 ml of your favourite fizz (we prefer Veuve Clicquot champagne!)
Ice cubes or crushed ice

Method

Chill a champagne flute with crushed ice or iced water to chill it.
Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the Sky Wave Gin, lemon and sugar syrup, and shake vigorously.
Empty out the champagne flute, and fine strain the contents of the shaker into the flute.
Top up slowly with the champagne.
Garnish with a long lemon twist if you wish.

Recipe notes by Elizabeth Gibbs

The recipe for this iconic cocktail was refined through in the 1920s but first appeared in 1915. When it was first created by Harry MacElhone at his New York Bar in Paris, it used cognac instead of gin. Either way, the cocktail is as powerful as the French 75mm field gun that inspired its name.

This drink is a tapestry of gin and bubbles, gracefully woven together to turn you into a carousing debauchee. The French 75 is one to turn to in times of celebration; to raise your glass and ring in the new year, the new job, the new baby, the new teapot…yes that will do too!

It’s also a perfect cocktail to serve as an aperitif as the bubbles will help lift the mood in no time.

PS: We are told that Harry MacElhone never claimed the drink as his own, instead citing Macgarry of Buck’s Club in London as its conceptual home.