Strawberry French 75 Cocktail

 The  Strawberry French 75 cocktail, with its mix of champagne, Empress gin, and strawberries is refreshingly delicious. When I think of a celebratory cocktail with champagne, the French 75  is one of the cocktails that quickly comes to mind. With both Valentine’s Day and my husband’s birthday approaching, I thought the beautiful Strawberry French 75 Cocktail would be just right to celebrate both occasions. The use of strawberries as an ingredient inspired the use of strawberry hearts as a cocktail garnish. Aren’t they fun! Recipe and instructions on strawberry hearts below.

If you’ve been following for a bit, you know @Empress1908gin is one of my favorite ingredients in cocktails. I fell in love with its rich flavor and beautiful rich color. The butterfly pea blossom in the gin imparts subtle earthy notes and all-natural indigo color. When you add citrus,  the gin transforms from vivid indigo to a delicate soft pink.

For weeks as our Friday date night fun, we made one of this gin’s signature cocktails. To get my round-up of our favorite Empress gin cocktail recipes, press here.

As I’ve experimented with the syrup recipes I’ve found that the kind of berries I used corresponded to how much syrup I would need to get my preferred taste. Strawberries are at their peak of flavor in the summer even though we can get them year-round. Depending on the source of your berries, from frozen to organic and season,  you will find a different level of sweetness and tartness to your fruit. This affects your syrup. I prefer using organic strawberries year-round because they seem to maintain a better flavor. Keeping this in mind, I found that the amount of syrup I need is less when the berries are at their peak of flavor. The range of syrup I used to get the perfect Strawberry French 75 Cocktail has been anywhere from .5 ounces to 2 ounces depending on what kind of berry I was using. Start with the .5 ounces but experiment with the minimum amount of syrup you need and adjust to taste keeping this in mind. Have fun experimenting! The recipe to create the strawberry syrup below. 

Strawberry Heart Cocktail Garnish

To create the cocktail garnish, skewer strawberry hearts on a cocktail pick and place it in the cocktail. Directions on how to create the strawberry heart garnish in the photo below.