French 75

In The French 75, John Maxwell Hamilton tracks down the many lives of this protean cocktail. The drink, named by French propagandists during World War I, was said to pack a punch as powerful as that nation's celebrated 75 mm cannon. At the end of the century, the French 75 surfaced at Arnaud's Restaurant and became as entrenched in New Orleans as the famed second line. Hamilton explores the kaleidoscopic variety of the French 75 over the years and across continents.