So here’s the deal with a French 75 recipe. You shake 30 ml of gin with 15 ml lemon juice and 15 ml sugar syrup, pour it into a cold flute, then fill it up with bubbly. That’s it. Four things, about two minutes, and most of that is squeezing the lemon.
It’s a good one for when friends come round and you want to look like you tried. Nobody needs to know it was easier than making tea. And with Christmas parties coming up (already? yes, already), it’s worth having in your back pocket. Learn one now and you’ll be doing a whole jug of them by December.
French 75 at a Glance
- Time: 2 minutes, give or take
- Makes: 1 drink (or a jug for 8, chart below)
- Glass: a flute or a coupe, cold from the freezer
- Spirit: London dry gin. Cognac if you’re feeling fancy
- Bubbles: Champagne, or honestly any dry sparkling
- How strong: roughly 1.7 Aussie standard drinks, 2.1 UK units
Jump to: Why it works · Ingredients · How to make it · Gin or cognac? · Pitcher chart · History · Why it’s trending · Mistakes · Variations · FAQ
Why This French 75 Recipe Works
Why does it work? It’s basically a gin sour wearing a nice dress. Lemon and sugar, same amount of each, so it’s tart but not face-scrunching. Then you pour the wine on top and it sort of stretches everything out. Lighter. Fizzier. More of a party drink, really.
Shaking with ice waters it down a little too. Sounds bad, isn’t. It takes the sharp edge off the gin so the first sip doesn’t make you wince. Then you want at least double the bubbly to gin, more if you like it long and easy.
One rule though. Don’t put the wine in the shaker. Bubbles plus a sealed shaker equals foam all over the bench, and a flat drink.
What Goes in a French 75 (Shopping List)
- Gin: 30 ml (1 oz). I’d grab a plain London dry, the piney kind. It stands up to the lemon.
- Lemon juice: 15 ml (1/2 oz) squeezed from about half a lemon.
- Sugar syrup: 15 ml (1/2 oz). It’s literally sugar dissolved in the same amount of water.
- Sparkling wine: 60 to 90 ml (2 to 3 oz), fridge-cold. Save the real Champagne for big nights, honestly.
- Garnish: one long curl of lemon peel, peeled off with a veggie peeler.
No syrup? Stir 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar into 1/2 cup (125 ml) hot water till it goes clear, let it cool. Pop it in a clean jar in the fridge and it’s good for about a month.
Missing something or want to play around? Here’s what each swap does.
| Ingredient | Swap | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Champagne | Australian or English sparkling, Cava, Crémant | Same dry style, often way cheaper, tastes great |
| Champagne | Prosecco | A bit fruity and sweet, so drop syrup to 10 ml |
| London dry gin | Old Tom gin | Softer and slightly sweeter; cut syrup a little |
| Simple syrup | Honey syrup | Rounder, floral flavour; try this honey vanilla syrup |
| Lemon juice | Bottled lemon juice | Flatter and a bit bitter; fresh is worth it here |
How to Make a French 75, Step by Step
Never shaken a cocktail? Good, start here. No shaker either? A jam jar with a lid that actually seals does the same job, just hold the lid on.
- Chill the glass. Freezer for 10 minutes. Or fill it with ice and water while you get on with the rest.
- Base in the shaker. In go 30 ml of gin, 15 of lemon and 15 of syrup, whatever order you like.
- Shake it. Fill with ice, lid on, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds. When the outside goes frosty and cold on your hands, done.
- Strain. Dump the ice water out of the glass first. Then strain the mix in, through a little fine strainer if you’ve got one, it catches the pulp and ice bits.
- Bubbles. Pour 60 to 90 ml of cold sparkling down the side of the glass. Go slow here, otherwise it bubbles right up and over and you lose half of it.
- Twist. Grab your strip of peel and squeeze it over the glass (you’ll actually see a little spray), then drop it in or hook it on the rim. And drink it now, not in ten minutes.
That twist at the end, don’t skip it. You smell it before you’ve even had a sip, and weirdly that’s half the drink.
French 75 Cocktail Recipe
French 75 Cocktail
Ingredients
- 30 ml London dry gin (1 oz)
- 15 ml fresh lemon juice (1/2 oz), about 1/2 lemon
- 15 ml simple syrup (1/2 oz), 1:1 sugar and water
- 60-90 ml Champagne or dry sparkling wine (2-3 oz), well chilled
- 1 lemon twist for garnish
- ice for shaking
Method
- Chill a Champagne flute or coupe in the freezer for 10 minutes, or fill it with ice water while you mix.
- Pour 30 ml gin, 15 ml fresh lemon juice and 15 ml simple syrup into a cocktail shaker.
- Fill the shaker with ice and shake hard for 10-12 seconds, until the outside of the shaker feels frosty.
- Empty the glass, then strain the mixture into it through a fine strainer to catch pulp and ice chips.
- Slowly top with 60-90 ml cold Champagne or sparkling wine, pouring down the side of the glass so it doesn’t foam over.
- Twist a strip of lemon peel over the drink to release its oils, add it to the glass and serve straight away.
Notes
- Using Prosecco? Cut the simple syrup to 10 ml, as Prosecco is sweeter than Brut Champagne.
- Simple syrup: dissolve 100 g sugar in 125 ml hot water, cool, and refrigerate up to 1 month.
- Cognac version: swap the gin for 30 ml cognac and use an orange twist.
- About 1.7 Australian standard drinks or 2.1 UK units per cocktail.
- Nutrition is an estimate.
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Gin or Cognac: Which French 75 Is Right?
Both are right, people just argue about it. Gin came first and it’s what most bars pour now. Cognac is the New Orleans way, warmer, rounder, a bit of dried fruit and vanilla in there. Some bartenders call the cognac one a “French 125,” and cocktail writer Simon Difford goes through all of that in his French 75 history.
Same lemon, same syrup, same bubbles, different spirit. Here’s what you get.
| Spirit (30 ml) | Name you’ll see | Taste | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| London dry gin | French 75 | Crisp, citrusy, herbal | Summer parties, brunch |
| Cognac or brandy | French 125 / cognac French 75 | Rich, round, warming | Winter, after dinner |
| Bourbon | French 95 | Sweeter, vanilla, oak | Whisky fans |
| Non-alcoholic gin | French 75 mocktail | Light, botanical | Drivers, alcohol-free guests |
How to Make a French 75 Pitcher for a Party
Shaking eight of these one at a time while people are chatting to you? Not fun. What I’d do is mix the base an hour or two before, stick it in the fridge, and only add the bubbles when you’re actually pouring. This is the batch chart.
| Serves | Gin | Lemon juice | Simple syrup | Sparkling wine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 ml | 15 ml | 15 ml | 75 ml |
| 4 | 120 ml | 60 ml | 60 ml | 300 ml (about 1/2 bottle) |
| 8 | 240 ml | 120 ml | 120 ml | 1 x 750 ml bottle |
| 12 | 360 ml | 180 ml | 180 ml | 1 1/2 x 750 ml bottles |
Stir the gin, lemon and syrup in a jug and add a splash of water, about 20% extra (so roughly 100 ml for 8), because you’re not shaking it with ice. Fridge for 2 hours at least. Then it’s 60 ml of base in each cold flute and bubbly on top. It’ll keep for a day. Leave it longer and the lemon goes kind of dull.
So Why Is It Called a French 75, Anyway?
It’s named after a gun. The French 75 mm field gun, the Canon de 75 modèle 1897, used everywhere in World War I. The story goes that the drink kicks like one. Fair.
The first “75” cocktails, around 1915, weren’t even this drink. Gin, grenadine, applejack, that sort of thing. The gin, lemon, sugar and Champagne version turns up in a 1927 book called Here’s How. And the bit about Harry MacElhone inventing it at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris? Difford’s digging says that one doesn’t really stack up.
Why the French 75 Is Trending Right Now
It’s having a moment. On 27 October 2026, Google Trends had “french 75 recipe” shooting up in Australia (+300%) and the UK (+250%) on the same day, right when both countries start thinking about parties.
It’s even getting its own day. Back in September 2026, Wine Industry Advisor reported that International French 75 Day kicks off on 29 May 2027, lined up with 100 years since that 1927 Here’s How recipe.
Bartenders are messing with it too. In Forbes’ 2026 cocktail predictions, one bartender picked “modernized classics” like French 75s, with yuzu, saline, thyme or basil thrown in. A couple of those are down in the variations.
French 75 Mistakes I See All the Time
- Shaking the bubbly. Foam everywhere, flat drink. Wine goes in last, straight into the glass.
- Warm wine. It foams over and tastes kind of flabby. Three hours in the fridge, minimum.
- Full syrup with Prosecco. Prosecco’s sweeter than Brut, so drop the syrup to 10 ml or it gets sticky.
- Bottled lemon. Flat, a little bitter. A single lemon gives you enough for two drinks anyway.
- Ice in the glass. Waters it down in no time. Cold glass, no ice.
5 French 75 Variations to Try
Cognac French 75
Cognac goes in where the gin was (still 30 ml) and the lemon peel becomes orange. Warmer and deeper, more of a cold-night or after-dinner thing.
Damson or Sloe Gin French 75
Split the gin, 15 ml London dry plus 15 ml of homemade damson or sloe gin, and pull the syrup back to 10 ml since the fruit gin is sweet already. It turns this pale pink and tastes like plums. Very Christmassy.
Yuzu French 75
Got yuzu? Use it for half of the lemon juice. Bit floral, bit mandarin. That’s one of the twists bartenders keep talking about this year.
Herb French 75
Pop 2 sprigs of thyme (or 3 basil leaves) into the shaker along with everything else. Strain it really well, nobody wants leaf bits in their teeth. Fresh sprig on top.
French 75 Mocktail
30 ml non-alcoholic gin, alcohol-free sparkling on top, lemon and syrup the same. Looks exactly like the real one in the glass, so the drivers don’t feel like the odd ones out.
What to Serve with a French 75
Salty and crunchy, that’s what you want next to it. Oysters are the classic. But a bowl of maple spiced nuts, some olives or plain old crisps work just as well. At brunch, smoked salmon on toast.
Quick word on strength. One of these, with 30 ml of 40% gin and 75 ml of 12% bubbly, has about 17 g of alcohol. In Australia a standard drink is 10 g of pure alcohol, so that’s around 1.7 standard drinks, or about 2.1 units in the UK. It goes down way easier than that sounds. Pace yourself, and have the mocktail ready too.
French 75 FAQ
What is in a French 75?
It’s gin, fresh lemon juice and a little sugar syrup, shaken up with ice and then topped with Champagne or some other dry sparkling. Most bars go 30 ml gin, 15 ml lemon, 15 ml syrup and somewhere between 60 and 90 ml of bubbles, with a twist of lemon to finish.
Is a French 75 made with gin or cognac?
Gin, if you go by the 1927 recipe, and that’s still what you’ll get in most bars. Cognac caught on later, mostly down in New Orleans. Honestly neither is wrong. Gin gives you something crisp and bright, cognac something richer that warms you up a bit.
Can you make a French 75 with Prosecco?
Sure can. Prosecco’s a bit fruitier and usually sweeter than Brut, so knock the syrup down to about 10 ml. Really any dry sparkling you like will do, a bottle of Aussie or English fizz, Cava, Crémant, whatever’s in the fridge.
Do you shake or stir a French 75?
Shake it. Well, shake the gin, lemon and syrup with ice for 10 or 12 seconds, then strain. The wine never goes anywhere near the shaker, you pour that on top at the very end so it keeps its fizz.
What glass do you use for a French 75?
A flute is the classic, and the bubbles last longer in that tall narrow shape. A coupe looks gorgeous too though. Whatever you pick, stick it in the freezer first, because this one’s served with no ice.
Can you make French 75 ahead of time?
Half of it, yes. The gin, lemon and syrup can be mixed up to a day before and kept in the fridge (add a splash of water to make up for the ice). The bubbles go on right as you hand the glass over, not before.
My Last Tip: Twist the Peel Over the Glass
Don’t just drop the peel in. Hold it skin side down over the glass and twist it hard, you’ll see a little mist of oil hit the top. Tiny thing. Makes it smell incredible.
Make one this week? Leave a star rating on the recipe card and tell me in the comments, gin or cognac. Save it to Pinterest for the next party. And if you want to get ahead for Christmas, start a batch of homemade damson gin now, it’ll be ready for a pink French 75 by then.
