The invention 100 years ago of the French 75 cocktail was a shot heard around the world. Named for the powerful 75 mm cannon used by the French army, the legendary drink may have been the secret sauce that led the Allied powers to win the first World War. Okay, maybe a cocktail was not the main reason for the Allied victory, but it lifted spirits just as the gun did by keeping the Germans out of Paris in the first days of the war.
By the time the guns were spiked, the popularity of the drink had ricocheted around the world, morphing into different versions and becoming a cult favorite from Paris to New Orleans. Hamilton, a journalism professor at Louisiana State University, took on the grueling task of tasting the many varieties of the drink and fact-checking the myths around its creation.
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