Post #460825 by PiPhiRho on Wed, Jun 10, 2009 2:27 PM

Now, no need to be hostile.

The French 75 is a great classic cocktail. We often go beyond tiki cocktails and ooh and aah whenever we find a place that serves well-made classic coctails like this. I know I always appreciate it and my love of a good cocktail is not limited to just tiki.

On the other hand, I don't think that the French 75 was necessarily the best drink to kick off a discussion about gin based drinks. First of all, it was originally made with cognac, not gin, and a true cocktail snob would stick their nose in the air and say, "this is not a gin cocktail!" And, of course, claims that this is not a tiki cocktail are also correct, as this is not a tiki cocktail.

So perhaps it might have been better to start out with one of the tiki cocktails that are made with gin. Drinks such as:

• the Singapore Sling (and its variants)
• the Suffering Bastard (Shepherd's Hotel version, not Trader Vic's)
• the Fog Cutter
• the Saturn (Taboo Table)
• and, in some variations, the Doctor Funk.

So, Mr. Beefeater, if you are not familiar wiht these cocktails then you may find you will have a hard time getting anyone here on TC to take you seriously.