The French 75 is a classic cocktail that’s gone in multiple directions. Traditionally a gin-based drink, it has also circulated as a Cognac cocktail for generations, and perhaps never more so than today. Chris Hannah from Jewel of the South in New Orleans joins us to explain why that’s the case, and to share his own approach to the cocktail.
The French 75 is a classic celebratory cocktail, topped with sparkling wine and based on the fortifying flavor of gin. Or is it Cognac? The gin version has long circulated as the standard, but New Orleans bartender Chris Hannah has given the cocktail fresh life with a Cognac foundation. From his first work with the cocktail at Arnaud’s French 75 bar to his current position as a partner at Jewel of the South, Hannah has not only put his own imprint on the cocktail, but made it into a New Orleans favorite. Hannah joins us to explore the French 75’s modern evolution, and to walk us through his approach to mixing the cocktail.
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Paul Clarke
Hey everybody, welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe Magazine. I'm Paul Clarke, Imbibe's editor-in-chief.
And last year, as part of one of our explorations here on the podcast of all of the details surrounding an individual classic cocktail, we dove into the story of the Brandy Crusta, a cocktail with roots in New Orleans. And for that episode, we welcomed my good friend Chris Hannah, who's one of the partners in Jewel of the South in New Orleans, a restaurant and bar that's really taken ownership of the Brandy Crusta and made it its own.
And at that time we recorded the episode, I remember thinking, you know, Chris Hannah really knows the Brandy Crusta inside and out, but there's another cocktail in the canon to which his name will always be connected, and that's the French 75. The French 75, of course, is a cocktail with a history stretching back around a century. The recipe first appeared in print in 1927, but it had been making the rounds already for a bit at that time, and as anybody who's done any exploration of cocktails knows, the French 75 is a gin-based cocktail with lemon and sugar and dressed up with champagne. And this is the point where, if you're reading this description on the page, we'd insert a little asterisk or a side note of some sort, making one thing clear, and that is, the French 75 is traditionally a gin-based cocktail, but throughout the course of its history, it's also sometimes been a brandy-based or cognac-based drink, depending on who you ask.
If you ask Chris Hannah, he'll say the French 75 is a cognac-based cocktail, and he's largely the reason why so many other people might agree with him today. And how did this happen, and why is the French 75 now always connected to Chris Hannah's professional reputation and to the city of New Orleans? That's what we're going to explore in this episode. So here's Chris Hannah from Jewel of the South in New Orleans, helping us understand every aspect of his approach to the French 75 cocktail.
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Paul Clarke
Chris, welcome back to Radio Imbibe.
Chris Hannah
Yeah, good to be back. Thank you.
Paul Clarke
Yeah, and you know, it's always wonderful to talk to you, and I'm glad we made this episode happen, because back in the summer of 2024, you were a guest on the podcast, and we talked about that quintessential classic cocktail, the Brandy Crusta.
Chris Hannah
Yeah.
Paul Clarke
And at that time, I recall thinking, man, that was great, but maybe we should have done the French 75, just because, you know, it's something that I know is near and dear to your heart. But of course, the obvious answer is, we can do both. So here you are.
Chris Hannah
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Love the cognac connection, you know what I mean?
Paul Clarke
Mentioning that, let's go with, so before we get into the details, We should clarify at the outset that unlike the Brandy Crusta, the French 75 is not originally a New Orleans cocktail. And we should also clarify at the outset that unlike the Brandy Crusta, the French 75 is not or may not be originally a brandy-based or cognac-based cocktail. And that, yet here you are, with your name and your professional reputation permanently attached to the French 75 and made as a cognac cocktail. Could you share the backstory on how that happened? with you and your connection to this drink?
Chris Hannah
Yeah, obviously it stems from working at the French 75 bar, and just so you know, which many people don't know, the French 75 bar was called the French 75 bar within the year that I got there. You know, it used to be called Arnaud's Grill Room, and then they had a little renovation, and the Casbarians who owned Arnaud's Restaurant wanted to French it up a little bit more and turn the room into a French safari theme with the renovation. And then going back to what Count Arnaud, the original owner of Arnaud's Restaurant, preferred in his French 75 cocktail, which was with cognac. So, we went with it, and the French 75 bar started making their French 75 cocktail, the house cocktail with cognac. And then, that's when I began working at the French 75 bar. So, to be honest with you, the French 75 bar reintroduced, and myself reintroduced, cognac and the French 75 to the world, which were obviously using gin across the board. And so, we didn't realize that, at the time, that it was going to be such a big deal.
But, when people kept coming down to New Orleans, and this is, again, this is the beginning of Tales of the Cocktail, which was like, you know, 2002, and the beginning of the community of bartenders, which didn't exist really before Tales of the Cocktail, started bringing everybody from Pacific Northwest, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Boston, right? So, the more Tales of the Cocktail started to blow up, the more cocktails did as well. So, the bartenders would come to New Orleans, and they would go back to their cities, and they would talk to their regulars, and then the other bartenders, and they would talk about how amazing our community is. That's what really got me like the, uh, you know, the eponymous cocktail French 75 associated with Chris Hannah is when they would go to New Orleans, that's the first thing they would see, cause it's like very early 2000s, 2004, five, six, seven, and eight.
I would credit to being the community beginning for our, um, national cocktail community, but, uh, they would come to the New Orleans and they would see that, that we were making this cocktail without a blink of an eye, always with cognac, not even thinking about gin. And so it was new to them. So they would go back and they said, well, in New Orleans, this bar, the French 75 bar is making it with cognac and like over and over and over. And so it's kind of like grassroots. So that it just became associated with when the French 75 is made with cognac, then it's a New Orleans version of a French 75. And then the more you do it, what happens is it just, it turns into our cocktail.
So it's now a New Orleans cocktail. It was never on any, if you would have Googled or searched top 10 cocktails to New Orleans before 2004, French 75 is never on any list because it just wasn't our drink. And so I'm very proud of that. And like, I'm proud of putting the French 75 on the cocktail canon of New Orleans, because now there's absolutely no way to Google and search top 10 cocktails to get when you're in New Orleans. It's all, you're always going to get the French 75. And I'm very proud of that. proud of like, in the very beginning, there was always a big argument. A lot of the, a lot of the geeky bartenders and the, and the, and the bar enthusiasts would come down and they would say, you know, you're making it incorrectly. Right. You know, you know, you're making, why are you making it wrong when you know it's gin? And it's like over and over and over. Um, and I mean, we could talk about like the history of maybe on some other, uh, podcasts, cause that's a long, long, long story. But that's essentially how I became known for the French 75 and, and how New Orleans as well, uh, became known for the French 75 cocktail.
Paul Clarke
Right. I, I, I recall, you know, my first forays down to New Orleans for tales of the cocktail, my first year down was 2006. And I remember, I remember going to the French 75 thinking, I got to get the French 75. It was like on the station of the cross at that moment. Like you got to get a, you know, Pimms cup at Napoleon house. You got to get the Sazerac. You got to pick up, you know, a few drinks. And the French 75 was one of those. And I recall in those early days, you know, especially like the gin folks, you know, like Simon Ford or Angus Winchester, uh, coming in and, you know, I mean, it was, it was, it was part of the job and it was part of the gig and it was part of the whole, you know, kind of thing that was going on. But like you said, now I think the French 75 is, you know, the cognac version of the French 75 is tied with the city itself and very much a part of that. And it kind of fits in with the general vibe of New Orleans in a way with that cognac base.
Chris Hannah
Exactly. Yeah. Because I mean, think you're right. Because like, if you think about our actual cocktails, they're all aged spirits. It's always going to be rye and Cognac, you know, Vieux Carre, Sazerac, La Louisiane, Brandy Crusta and a French 75, Brandy milk punch, bourbon milk punch. So yeah, you're right. It does fit with the vibe of New Orleans.
Paul Clarke
So what we like to do in these single cocktail episodes is to break down a drink piece by piece, you know, kind of examine each of the constituent parts, then put it back together again in some kind of ideal formulation so that our listeners can play along at home. So let's look at the French 75 from that angle. And to start off with, since you're using cognac in this, what is your preference? You have options here on the type of cognac that you can use. What's your preference for the cognac in a French 75?
Chris Hannah
You know, I really love the fuller mouthfeel in the D’Usse VSOP. So, and you can go like two directions. So it's like, I would use, if you wanted like a nice, heavy, full, balanced French 75, I would use D’usse VSOP. And then if you wanted like a nice, you know, elegant, little, just a little lighter, I would do like either Park VS or Ferrand Amber, I would choose those two. They're, I mean, they're, they're lovely cognacs on their own. So that's, that's the fun part about doing the French 75 and having an option is if you, you know, you figure out where like, which one's gonna have like a little more round and full mouthfeel and a heavier in the, in the aging, and then you can use lighter.
Paul Clarke
And I think, you know, it's important we were thinking about of its role in this cocktail where you almost want that lighter or, The roundness, yes, but not too much. There's, there is such a thing as too much in this. This is not a place for grabbing your XO or like, you know, your, your vintage Armagnac or something.
Chris Hannah
Yeah. Oh, exactly. Right.
Paul Clarke
Because especially, you know, you mentioned the Park VS or the Ferrand Amber, they have a fruity edge. They're kind of lighter. And especially in this, you know, once you mix it with the champagne and the lemon, it's just going to kind of fit in with that overall notion. Yeah. Okay. So with the cognac settled, that brings us to the lemon, which to be fair, this seems to be like a breaking point for me. Like many times when I have a French 75 and I don't like the French 75, it's typically because there's too much lemon in there. is your, what is your consideration when you're thinking about the lemon and the simple syrup? Now that you've got the cognac out of the way,
Chris Hannah
You know, you're, you're right. It's true. I think what, I think what most people are doing when you, when they're adding too much lemon is, is they're making a, they're making a straight cognac sour and just calling it, making it a Royale. You know what I mean? Anyway, you're going to have the gin, or like a daisy, a complete daisy, and adding a little bit, so that's still like a full drink already. Then you're adding the bubbles, when the bubbles are supposed to be part of it. So, we do actually go from a quarter to a half at the most. So, it's like when I do the recipe, some people get mad at me, and they say, "How do you get .33 ounces of lemon?" And I'm basically just saying, just a little bit, we want to say like when you're behind the bar, like a fat quarter, meaning, you're getting a quarter ounce, but just make it a little bit above the meniscus, you know? So, that would be like .33 ounces of lemon, .25 ounces, simple, one to one. And that's just making it not a complete balance sour, just a little bit more lemon, and you're letting the cognac complete the balance of the drink. And then the bubbles, two and a half to three ounces. So, it would be, yeah, so one and a quarter to one and a half of the spirit, .33 to a half, but I would never do more than a half of an ounce, because of exactly what you just said. So, we're not making a Royale, to your point. And then a quarter ounce of the simple, and then shake that. you want to get to the bubbles, or do you want to ask a question?
Paul Clarke
Yeah, let me ask a question first, because I think it's an important point. Let me just chime in on that, you know, keeping the lemon short. The thing that we need to always keep in mind is when you add the bubbles, when you add the champagne, that's got acidity as well. And that's going to bring acidity to the game. So, if you just think like, "Oh, just make a regular sour, then add No, you've got an acid bomb going on at that point.
Chris Hannah
Yeah, I Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Paul Clarke
So, you mentioned the champagne. Let's, what is your preference there? I mean, you need to have this ready and waiting. What is your preference there for the bubbles when you're getting ready to make this?
Chris Hannah
You know, I've always been a stickler for brut, mainly because of the dryness. So I want to get more of the effervescence than an actual fruit bomb from the bubbles, you know what I mean? It's like, I want the effervescence to be bringing out the cocktail. So I usually, we usually use a Brut or a Cremant. You know, maybe a Blanc de Blanc could work. I do stay away sometimes from Prosecco just because of the sweetness, unless you're going to use that towards the lemon in the cocktail. I mean, you know, you're going to know how to balance your own drink. And it has always been a Brut or a Cremant. You don't have to go straight champagne because obviously that's going to get kind of expensive.
Paul Clarke
And, and I mean, it should be obvious, but you know, you, you want to have a chill on this before you start.
Chris Hannah
Oh yeah.
Paul Clarke
Because then you're just going to, you know, you're going to do all that work with shaking the cocktail, but you can bring it back to room temperature right away.
Chris Hannah
Right. That's, that's, that's funny. You mentioned that because the first thing I do, because everywhere I go for travel, when I travel, I have to make the French 75. So the first thing I do before I do any prep, like garnish, juicing and that, I just go ahead and just put that, put the, um, bubbles in ice or in a cooler. And then I just don't even worry about it. And then I, and then I go and start prepping the batching and doing all that because it's already going to be done. And I just don't want to, I want that part out of my mind. So you're very, very true. It has to be chilled.
Paul Clarke
Okay, great. So, so here we are, you said you you're using one and a quarter to one and a half ounces of your cognac, 0.33 of your lemon juice, a quarter ounce of one to one simple syrup. And you shake that with ice. You strain that into your glass. Uh, and, and you're, how much champagne are you using?
Chris Hannah
Uh, two and a half to three ounces.
Paul Clarke
Two and a half to three ounces of chilled sparkling wine. And I should walk my, myself back there. I say you pour it in it, you strain it in the glass and add the wine. Is that your preferred process for doing that? I know it in Imbibe, that's the way we usually write it. And a lot of times when you see it, but I know there are other approaches to, to incorporating the bubbles into your drink.
Chris Hannah
You're right. Um, you know, we've been, when I do a single French 75, I will pour like half or even all of the bubbles into the, into the cocktail glass. And then strain over just so it like, so it kind of mixes with the, the bubbles like already in the glass instead of just laying right on top. But when you're making like six at a time and you're pouring the bubbles, it's like, it's hard to, I want to make sure that I have like all of the right cocktail of the base in the, in the glasses. And then I will top, which is perfectly fine. But if you're just doing one, uh, to see if you can, uh, tell the difference yourself, pouring the, pouring the bubbles in the glass and strain the, um, the cocktail mix from the, from the tin into it through the, through the bubbles and see which, see which version you like better. But as a, as a bartender, not at home, it gets, it gets too hard to do that when you're getting, you're getting six to 10 at a time, you know? And I'm sure, I'm sure you've seen the lineups at tails before it's, and it's pretty crazy.
Paul Clarke
Right. Right. And I know there is one school of thought, and I've done this myself, where you shake the cocktail, add the bubbles directly to the tin, then strain it all together. Is that not a preferred move or is that okay?
Chris Hannah
You know, when I do that, I actually find myself doing that more with club soda.
Paul Clarke
Hmm. Okay.
Chris Hannah
And I think there's like a, and I don't, I think that's just in my mind. I know that there's like a higher, was it PSI of bubbles and club soda than, than champagne because you can force the bubbles in club soda and champagne's natural. You know, if I were to do it like, if I were to pour the bubbles in the tin, I would probably, and this is something that I always, I've always had like a little joke about because I want to talk trash about Morgenthaler and Naren Young, because Naren Young and Morgenthaler always are saying, Chris Hannah makes it wrong, it should be in a Collins glass. So, if I were to pour, so if I were to pour the bubbles into the tin, I would probably even use, um, the educated ice, but, you know, behind the bar we say the dirty ice. So I would pour the entire contents into a Collins glass without straining, so, and that'll break up less bubbles than when you're straining, so I would pour all of the entire, like I'd add the bubbles to the tin, and then pour all of the ice, the mixture, and everything into a Collins glass, and that would be perfectly mixed, and then you would make Morgenthaler happy anyway.
Paul Clarke
Right, okay, and actually, that was my next question. I was gonna say, usually the arguing about a cocktail is finished by the time it's in the shaker, but not here, not with the French 75, because there is that dispute of, get in the flute glass, I've seen it in the coupe glass, but also, I know the Morgenthaler approach, and others, as Naren Young, as you mentioned, it's, they say the French 75 is a highball. Why have you staked your claim with, with your direction?
Chris Hannah
Because I didn't accept so quickly Dale DeGroff's, the French 75 was just a Collins with champagne instead of bubbles, which would mean it's in a Collins glass. Because obviously it's a long, there's much more story than that, it's not a Collins, it was not built. I mean, probably, if you're like actually on base, and you're at, you know, during World War I, then maybe you did put it in a Collins glass and didn't, didn't get so fussy with it, but I personally, no, I don't, I think it's a, it's such a celebration of a cocktail. The history with the French 75 is such a long story, and it's such a proud moment for the French, that the way that it ended up being in a flute is something a little bit more celebratory, something to be happy about, you know, it's like New Year's Eve, you know, like a nice dinner, or you're celebrating a birthday. The French 75 was the first thing that the French were able to be proud of for 60 years in regards, in regards to the war. So the French 75 went through several different ways of being, of being made, and we're not going to, I don't want to talk about that, but I want to make this shorter, but that's why I don't believe that it was a, in a Collins glass and without the fuss, and just something to like, you know, not, not, not look down your nose on, but not be as proud of as when you are, how you are when you're holding a nice stemmed cocktail glass.
Paul Clarke
Right, right, okay, and then so, so you poured it into your flute, uh, garnish, preferred garnish here, or do you leave it alone?
Chris Hannah
Um, I'm always a lemon peel, you know, I'm a lemon peel, I want to see it, I want to smell it, and uh, just completes the drink.
Paul Clarke
Right, okay, so there we have it, a French 75, we walk through it, we've looked at it from all the angles, are there any other best practices about the French 75 we should keep in mind, or any final bits of French 75 wisdom that you've learned over the years?
Chris Hannah
Um, yeah, especially like now that it's getting into the holidays, um, if you want to go ahead and batch the base, and put it in a pitcher, in your, uh, in your fridge, that's, I mean, really, really smart way to have like a dinner party, because then all you have, all you have to do is like pour it into the glass and top with, top with bubbles for whenever each guest arrives, if that's one of the questions you were asking.
Paul Clarke
Sure, absolutely, that's, I didn't realize it, but yeah, that was one of the questions I was asking, that's, that's fantastic.
Chris Hannah
Yeah, that's a brilliant, that's a brilliant move, a house party move, to be honest, yeah.
Paul Clarke
Fantastic, and you've been making these for years, and, and like you said earlier, you're, you're expected to make these when you travel around the world, do they still hold a place in your heart, do you still, you know, or are you just kind of like, oh my God, the French 75 again?
Chris Hannah
I always joke that it's better than being known for the Ramos Gin Fizz, you know? I mean, every day of the week, right? But, you know, it's, it's really funny, I, you know, I love it, I love being part of the history of it, especially here in my city, I'm glad that I turned it into a New Orleans cocktail, you know, it's like, I'm very proud of that.
And, it's, when I was in Panama last year, working a guest shift in Panama City, it wasn't even on the menu. The French 75 was not on the menu, but I made 40 that night for the guests, you know what I mean? So I already had a menu of drinks I'm supposed to make, and people were just like, you know, they were like, no, can we, are you still going to make the French 75? I was in Okinawa, same thing happened a month ago, you know? It's not on the menu, but I ended up making it, you know? And then I'm in Phuket, Thailand, and this guy, and I was at this guy's bar, we're talking about drinks, and he's like, oh, you're from New Orleans, French 75, I was like, will you please come behind and make, and make it with cognac, you know? So, it's not, it's, it's much more special to me that it's, I'm known specifically for making with cognac. So all these countries that are, all these bartenders in these random countries that are asking me to make it, it's, they always wanted to make it the New Orleans way. So yeah, I'm very, I'm proud, I love being known for the drink. What I also always say is, when life gives you lemons, you make French 75s.
Paul Clarke
Fantastic. Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to talk over this with us, and to share all your insight here. We'll need to do this again sometime, I always enjoy chatting with you.
Chris Hannah
Right on, yeah, this was fun, my friend. I hope you have good holidays as well, thank you.
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Paul Clarke
You can find Chris Hannah on Instagram @count_hannah, and check out Jewel of the South online at jewelnola.com. We've got those links for you in this episode's notes.
And that's it for this episode. Subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We've got tons of recipes and articles for you online on our website, imbibemagazine.com. Keep up with us day to day on Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, and Facebook. And if you're not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then here's the perfect opportunity to change that. Just follow the link in this episode's notes, and we'll be happy to help you out. I'm Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe. Catch you next time.