Our take on the French 75

By Ashleigh Went.

The history of cocktails is a funny thing – it’s a little like Chinese whispers in the playground. Rumours rise up like little bubbles, erupting in an effervescent fizz… Wait are we talking about champagne? Now we are.

The French 75 is an iconic champagne cocktail – it even had a cameo in Casablanca when Yvonne and her Nazi squeeze ordered a round. There are a collection of stories around how this cocktail was created and named. Some say it came from French American fighter pilot Gervais Raoul Lufbery after he complained his champagne needed ‘a kick’, others say it was English soldiers made the drink from the only ingredients they could get their hands on and drank it from a 75 millimetre arterial shell. One story says it was named after the 75 millimetre Howitzer gun used by the French during World War 1, because downing one left the drinker feeling as though they’d been shot by one…

I can’t tell you which one of these stories is accurate, because I’m no liquor historian. My expertise lies in the drinking of cocktails, not the etymology of cocktails, and what I can tell you is that the Bubbles & Dreams – Lucky’s take on the classic French 75 – is one darling little drink.

To make it, we take a shot of Bombay Sapphire Gin, 15ml of lemon juice and 20ml of our house made Watermelon Mint Shrub (totally divine) and give it a good shake before double straining it into a coupe glass. Then, we top it up with some bubbly and garnish with a mint sprig clipped with a mini clothes peg (saaaaaa cute).

I know what you’re thinking: champagne and gin? It’s almost too good to be true – but it’s not. It’s fresh, fizzy and frisky, and will leave you feeling much the same.