The French 75 is a quintessential champagne cocktail, a fizzy mix of bubbly, gin, lemon juice and sugar. But an early, lesser-known recipe for the concoction employs another French import instead of the gin: cognac, the grape-based brandy that was once among the most ubiquitous spirits in mixed drinks. By the early 1900s, when the French 75 was introduced, cognac wasn’t so common, partially due to the mid-1800s phylloxera epidemic, which had diminished production. Yet Chris Hannah, co-owner of the New Orleans bar Jewel of the South, believes that cognac was actually the French 75’s original base spirit. Hannah makes his...

Source: Wall Street Journal May 27, 2019 12:22 UTC