French 76

French 75

A French 75 is 30ml of London Dry gin, 15ml of fresh lemon juice and 15ml of sugar syrup, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds, double strained into a chilled flute and topped with 60ml of cold brut champagne, with a lemon twist. About 1.9 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The name is the French army’s 75mm field gun of the First World War. The drink is usually credited to Harry MacElhone and Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, often with the date 1915, but the printed record starts later. MacElhone’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, published at the end of 1922 according to the Oxford Companion, has a ‘75’ of calvados, gin, grenadine and absinthe, as the Internet Archive’s scan of its second impression shows. The Companion, in an entry by David Wondrich, finds the gin, lemon, sugar and champagne formula and the French 75 name together first in Here’s How, a book put out by a New York humour magazine, in 1927. Built that way, it is a Tom Collins with champagne in place of soda: a short gin sour that the wine lengthens and lifts.

Vodka Sour

A Vodka Sour is 60ml of vodka, 25ml of fresh lemon juice and 20ml of simple syrup, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with a lemon wheel and a cherry. About 2.4 UK units. With an egg white it needs a dry shake first, for 10 to 15 seconds, and goes into a chilled coupe. Vodka adds alcohol and almost no taste, so the drink is all lemon and of sugar set against acid. That makes it the plainest sour to learn on: every mistake shows. It follows the sour pattern of spirit, citrus and sugar, which the Oxford Companion dates to the 1850s, made with vodka, which the Companion calls relatively flavourless, colourless and odourless.

Kir Royale

A Kir Royale is 10ml of crème de cassis in a chilled flute, topped slowly with 90ml of cold brut champagne and not stirred. No garnish is needed. About 1.2 UK units. These are the IBA’s Kir measures, with champagne in place of white wine as the IBA’s own note directs. The Oxford Companion says the Kir is named after Félix Kir, the priest who was mayor of Dijon from 1945 to 1968, and that the drink, known as the Blanc Cassis, took his name only after his election. Difford’s Guide says he popularised it by promoting regional products at official functions. The Royale is the same idea with champagne. One part cassis in ten keeps it dry: the liqueur colours the wine and rounds its acidity without making it sweet. Difford’s Guide calls for six parts of wine to one of cassis, and the Oxford Companion gives 15ml to 100ml. Champagne contains sulphites.

Tom Collins

A Tom Collins is 60ml London Dry gin, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml sugar syrup built over ice in a collins glass, topped with 90ml of cold soda and stirred once, with a lemon slice and a cherry. It is a collins in the plainest sense: spirit, citrus and sugar, topped with soda. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, reports one account that traces the name to the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, in which people in New York were told that a man called Tom Collins had been insulting them and could be found in a bar some distance away. It also gives accounts of a real Mr Collins. The drink the name attached to may be older: Difford’s credits John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s Hotel on Conduit Street in London, with the Collins. Early recipes used Dutch genever, and Old Tom gin came into them later; the IBA still specifies Old Tom for a Tom Collins. This version uses London Dry for a drier, sharper drink, and the Old Tom version follows as a variation.