With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s time to figure out the perfect cocktail to pair with your family’s Thanksgiving meal. The holiday season is often a rush of planning, buying, and traveling to see friends and family. So trust me when I say you’ll want a reliable cocktail at your beck and call that will allow you to sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself. This Cranberry 75 is the perfect Thanksgiving cocktail. It’s crisp and light with a bit of tartness—the perfect accompaniment to a rich Thanksgiving meal.
This cocktail is based on a French 75, a classic combination of gin, sparkling wine, lemon, and sugar. The drink dates back to the early 1900s, with one of the first written versions appearing in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. You can rest assured this cocktail will be a crowd pleaser if it’s remained a classic cocktail for so many years.
To make the cocktail more Thanksgiving-appropriate, I’ve replaced the sugar in the original recipe with a cranberry simple syrup. It adds a beautiful color to the cocktail and would look perfect in a Thanksgiving Instagram post. I chose to use a Brut champagne in this recipe because of its dry nature, meaning a low sugar content. Using a dry champagne makes the cocktail taste refreshing and crisp, which is helped by the tartness of the lemon juice.
If you can’t find cranberry simple syrup, or would just prefer to make your own, whipping up a homemade version is extremely easy. Just mix 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Then add 1 cup chopped cranberries and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, let the mixture stand for an additional 10 minutes, and then strain out the cranberry pieces. Store the cranberry simple syrup for up to a month in an airtight jar in the fridge until ready to use.
Your Cranberry 75 will be made extra beautiful with a garnish of a few whole cranberries in the glass and a twist of lemon peel. Don’t be intimidated by the lemon twist—they’re deceptively easy to make and add an amazing fragrance to your cocktail, as well as a beautiful pop of color. After all, any Thanksgiving cocktail will need to stand out among all of the other food on the table. To make a simple lemon twist, use a vegetable peeler and, starting from one end of the lemon, work your way around the whole lemon in a spiral.
Cranberry 75
Ingredients
Instructions
Combine gin, cranberry simple syrup, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Shake and add to chilled glass.
Top off with champagne.
Garnish with lemon twist and cranberries.
This cocktail doesn’t need to be limited to only a Thanksgiving cocktail—it will taste delicious any time of year. You can always switch out the cranberry simple syrup for a more seasonally appropriate flavor. For a sweet and refreshing summer cocktail, make a Strawberry Rhubarb 75 using strawberry simple syrup and a homemade rhubarb liqueur. Or you can make a Lavender 75 using a lavender simple syrup to celebrate springtime, with a lavender sprig as garnish.
Whether you enjoy this cocktail yourself while basting the turkey or serve it alongside the plethora of other dishes on your Thanksgiving table, it is sure to stand out and be a delicious addition to your holiday. Plus, it gives you one more thing you can be thankful for this year.