French 75

French 75 Cocktail

My mother-in-law introduced me to this drink several years ago. We had made a longish car trip to attend a wedding and by the time we got home we were beat. I was feeling especially worn as I had done the all the driving. Her formula for the drink is a shot of good quality cognac in a glass of cheap champagne, and man, did it hit the spot!
    If I am not doing physical work, it doesn't taste that great, but these days I've been making small repairs around the house and doing a little work in the yard, which really wears me down and come beer-thirty, one of these is just what the doctor ordered. I wonder if my erratic heartbeat might have something to do with why it tastes so good.
    It's not a popular drink. I ordered one a couple of times during our road trip to the Midwest this summer and no one knew what it was, so I passed along my mother-in-law's recipe. The official recipe calls for lemon juice and sugar, but that's just gilding the lily. Booze one and booze two are all you really need.
    Looking for a picture, this is only one I found with the right color. The others showed something very pale, which is what you might get if you made this drink with a clear liquor like gin, but that would be sacrilege, wouldn't it? I mean gin is an English drink, not French. I could have taken a picture of my own drink, but I would have to dig out a fancy glass. Besides I like the beer glass I use.

The drink dates to World War I, and an early form was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris—later Harry's New York Bar—by barman Harry MacElhone. The combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm field gun. - Wikipedia

Canon de 75 modèle 1897, aka the "French 75"

The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece. It was the first field gun to include a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism, which kept the gun's trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence. Since it did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, the crew could fire as soon as the barrel returned to its resting position. In typical use, the French 75 could deliver fifteen rounds per minute on its target . . . [up to 5 miles away]. - Wikipedia

A split of Cook's Champagne (6.3 ounces, one fourth of a big bottle) costs a tiny bit less per ounce at the local grocery store than a full bottle, which pleases my inner cheapskate, but the really savings comes from the bottle holding less. I open a split (a tiny bottle) and I have no qualms about drinking the whole thing. I open a big bottle (750 ml) and I think I am only going to drink a glass or maybe two, but one glass leads to another and before the night is gone the bottle is empty and I am out $8 instead of 2. The splits come with twist off caps while the big bottles come with the traditional wire ties and corks. Tradition is all very well, but the screw tops are certainly handier.

The split of Champagne holds 120 calories. The shot of Cognac is about 100, so a drink made using these is going to have roughly the same impact as two beers.