Sebastopol 75
1.5 oz Pacific Alchemy
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Simple Syrup
Couple dashes Orange Bitters
3 oz Sparkling Wine
Garnish with lemon twist or flower
Fill shaker with ice, brandy, lemon juice, syrup and bitters. Shake then pour into Champagne flute and top with Champagne, Prosecco, or sparkling wine and garnish
For this cocktail Rick and Mark adapted the French 75 from gin to an apple theme. It works well with both Pacific Alchemy which gives a more fresh character and Founders Reserve which adds interesting spice note. They recommend homemade bitters own using local citrus and a recipe from David Lebovitz.
French 75, originally just called the Soixante Quinze (75 in French), got its name from a French World War 1 field gun. The name started being applied to cocktails during the war and by the 1920’s several recopies were published. Many early recipes pities included grenadine, but by the end of the 1920’s the standard recipe had evolved to the gin, lemon, sugar and champagne. While Gin was the most common base spirit for the French 75 other spirits were also used. In David Embury’s popular The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks he calls the use of Gin rather than Cognac “not French”. Most early recipes were served over ice. The straight up in a Champagne flute version that is most common today didn’t come around until the 1980’s.
Credit: Rick Mead and Mark Marion