![\"french-75-champagne-cocktail-recipe\"](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/french-75-champagne-cocktail-recipe-300x200.jpg\")
<\/div>\nIn reality, though, this mid-19th century party drink \u2013 nicknamed \u2018show girls\u2019 milk\u2019 \u2013 is usually horribly imbalanced: insipid at the start and then overly sweet and bitter at the end. It\u2019s a waste of good champagne<\/a>.<\/p>\n So let me save you some time this holiday season: forget <\/em>the classic champagne cocktail. If you really want to celebrate with something sparkling, then drink one of these three more interesting recipes instead.<\/p>\n Save your best bubbles though \u2013 middle-of-the-road brut non-vintages tend to be better for cocktails, as they\u2019re more willing team players than vintage or very expensive cuv\u00e9es that are more assertive in style. So, leave the Dom P\u00e9rignon<\/a> P2 in the fridge.<\/p>\n Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n 25ml yuzushu<\/p>\n 100ml champagne<\/p>\n Glass: flute, coupe or ice-filled rocks<\/p>\n Garnish: lemon or yuzu twist, or a pretty edible flower<\/p>\n Method<\/strong><\/p>\n For a crowd, simply pop a bit of chilled yuzushu in each glass and then top up with champagne. Or just knock it up by the jug.<\/p>\n If you want something really <\/em>easy, then champagne cocktails don\u2019t get simpler than this \u2013 consider it a French 75 with a Japanese twist. I absolutely adore yuzu\u2019s sunburst-y aromas of grapefruit, mandarin, and lemon. And we\u2019re just entering the yuzu harvest in East Asia right now, so this drink is very much in season. Fresh yuzu juice is very tart on its own; yuzushu (which is basically sake-based yuzu liqueur) is better for cocktails. The level of sweetness varies from brand to brand so you may want to add a dash of sugar syrup as well.<\/p>\n If you can lay your hands on a real yuzu fruit for the twist, then excellent \u2013 just spritz over the drink and discard, as yuzu\u2019s fantastically aromatic oils can sometimes be quite bitter. Cocktail Elements\u2019s distilled yuzu spray<\/a> \u2013 which can be misted on drinks like a scent \u2013 is also a brilliant short-cut.<\/p>\n For a lower-alcohol version of this drink, swap the champagne for sparkling jasmine tea \u2013 Jasmine by Saicho<\/a> is delicious and completely alcohol-free<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n 25ml gin<\/p>\n 12.5ml freshly squeezed lemon juice<\/p>\n 6.25ml sugar syrup (to make, dissolve two cups of caster sugar in one cup of water, over a low heat and leave to cool)<\/p>\n 50ml champagne<\/p>\n Glass: cocktail glass, flute or ice-filled rocks<\/p>\n Garnish: lemon twist<\/p>\n Method<\/strong><\/p>\n Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup. Strain into glass. Top with champagne and stir.<\/p>\n This icy meteor of gin, lemon, champagne, and sugar is one of my favorite party drinks. It\u2019s sophisticated and fun, easy to make at scale, and extremely efficacious. There\u2019s evidence of people (including Charles Dickens himself) mixing gin and champagne as early as the mid-1800s. But the French 75, in this form at least, is a racy Jazz Age recipe. It\u2019s thought to have been named after a French field gun used in WWI.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re making it for a party, knock up a jug of the lemon, gin, and sugar mix in advance (don\u2019t bother shaking), and then chill well for a few hours. The measurements look fiddly but it\u2019s really just gin, lemon, and sugar combined in a ratio of 4:2:1.<\/p>\n Just before serving, add the chilled champagne to the jug along with a load of ice, and then dispense liberally, in either coupes, flutes or in tumblers<\/a>, on the rocks. (The same method can also be used for the air mail below.)<\/p>\n Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n 30ml golden rum<\/p>\n 10ml freshly squeezed lime juice<\/p>\n 15ml honey syrup (to make the honey syrup, mix honey 2:1 with hot water and leave to cool)<\/p>\n 50ml champagne<\/p>\n Glass: ice-filled rocks<\/p>\n Garnish: mint sprig<\/p>\n Method<\/strong><\/p>\n Shake the first three ingredients with ice, then strain over ice and top with champagne (if mixing at scale, follow the same instructions as the French 75).<\/p>\nHow to make a yuzu champagne cocktail<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"yuzu-and-jasmine-spritz-champagne-cocktail-recipe\"](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/yuzu-and-jasmine-spritz-champagne-cocktail-recipe-2560x1707.jpg\")
How to make a French 75<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"champagne-cocktail-recipe-french-7\"](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/champagne-cocktail-recipe-french-75-2560x1707.jpg\")
How to make an air mail<\/h2>\n
![\"air-mail-champagne-cocktail-recipe\"](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/air-mail-champagne-cocktail-recipe-2560x1773.jpg\")