A classic French 75 with a modern twist! Made with Empress 1908 gin, fresh grapefruit juice, and a rose water simple syrup shaken over ice until chilled to the touch and topped with champagne. This cocktail is perfect for easy drinking and made to impress for this upcoming Valentine’s day or special occasions.

Head over to the liquor store and grab yourself a bottle of Empress 1908. Canadian made in small batches in Victoria BC! What really attracted us to it, is its blue hue made from butterfly pea blossom, among other things we thought it would be fun to play off of the rose petals and grapefruit peels which are also incorporated into every batch.

ROSE WATER SYRUP

To make this syrup we used equal parts rose water with sugar which we simmered for 10 minutes until all the sugar was dissolved and the liquid turned into a syrup consistency. We also infused the syrup with a few grapefruit peels to really make it pop!

In this drink we swapped out the lemon juice, and lemon garnish for grapefruit to make it our own. The rose water we found at our local grocery store and Empress gin is widely available which should make it fairly easy to source all the ingredients and put this drink together. We just want to point out that this is not a classic French 75 but a play on the classic cocktail.

We hope you enjoy this recipe! If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it on Instagram! We love to see what you come up with. #thecommunalfeast Follow along our social media account on instagram for quick videos on how our recipes come together!

Print Recipe

Empress 75

A classic French 75 with a modern twist! Made with Empress 1908 gin, fresh grapefruit juice, and a rose water simple syrup. The gin's blue hue swirled with champagne is what gives it its gorgeous purple ish colour.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Total Time10 minutes mins

Course: Drinks

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• per single serve
• 1 oz Empress 1908 gin
• 3/4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz rose water simple syrup
• champagne
• ice
• garnish with grapefruit peel twist
• Rose water simple syrup
• 1/2 cup rose water
• 1/2 granulated white sugar
• 2 grapefruit peel twists

Instructions

• In a shaker combine gin, syrup, grapefruit juice with ice. Shake until just chilled to the touch. Strain into champagne glass and fill with champagne.
• To make the syrup: Combine everything into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let simmer 10 minutes. Chill and keep refrigerated until ready to use. Store in fridge for 1 week.