Name: French Blonde
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Aromatized wine; 22.5 ml Gin; 10 ml Elderflower liqueur; 45 ml Pink grapefruit juice; 2 dash Lemon bitters

French Blonde
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Glass:

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Aromatized wine (e.g. Lillet Blanc)
³⁄₄ fl oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₃ fl oz	Elderflower liqueur
1 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Pink grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)
2 dash	Fee Brothers Lemon Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish:

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Lemon bitters and zestyness, along with tart grapefruit, add crucial balance to this gin-laced, delicately herbal floral cocktail.

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History:

Adapted from a recipe published in 2011 on Saveur.com and written by Caraline Bianchetto Chase.

Nutrition:

One serving of French Blonde contains 156 calories

Alcohol content:

1.1 standard drinks
11.6% alc./vol. (23.21° proof)
15.3 grams of pure alcohol

More Aperitivo/aperitif cocktails
More Elevenses/afternoon cocktails
More Floral (e.g. Elderflower spritz) cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 12 comments for French Blonde.
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Frederic D.

28th May at 22:31

Very very good cocktail, refreshing and delicately balanced. I used Dashfire Lemon bitters and they helped keep the drink bright. Highly recommended.

Florian Ruf

28th May at 12:14

Very refreshing summer drink. I replaced the lemon bitters by making a regal shake with lemon zest. As there is now an alcohol free Lillet on the market it should be possible to create an alcohol free version of this drink.

Simon Sedgley

3rd April at 12:44

Very delicate and beautifully balanced. We agree with other commenters that the gin can be safely nudged up a wee bit. For harmony's sake, grapefruit bitters seemed to make more sense than lemon bitters so we went with them.

Carolyn Rush

31st March at 12:37

Very nice!
I heeded previous commenters' warnings about the FB lemon bitters and used a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and definitely included the lemon twist.

Doubling the gin did not upset the balance of flavors ;)

You don't have to be a Swiftie to appreciate this!

G. M. Genovese

22nd January at 07:09

Fee Bros Lemon Bitters is as divisive as any of their other products. I think I've found one other recipe I liked it in... Dial them down to one dash, and that may be the sweet spot... Where this drink did it for me was the Luxardo Bitter Bianco and St. George Botanivore gin... superb swill even with the 2 dashes of FB... added to my "study" list - chef's kiss X

Cassandra Adams

28th May at 12:55

You switched the elderflower liqueur for Luxardo Bitter Bianco you mean?

1 reply

Calvin Grant

11th November 2025 at 03:20

Started making this only to discover I was out of lemons for the zest. Without which this was blah. Tried a small lime zest which was a noticeable improvement, then used zest from a giant green California Melogold grapefruit which helped considerably. Conclusion: the lemon zest is essential.

Clinton Lewis

15th May 2025 at 01:30

Very much enjoyed this, but I did go with a full ounce of Gin!

Edward Halliwell

6th May 2025 at 06:42

Really enjoyed this. I made it using a suggestion from another site just to use a squeeze of lemon juice, and have no desire to order lemon bitters as a result.

Lovely and light, but still really tasty. When I really love a cocktail I'll go back for a second. I had three of these, and it didn't feel too many.

Definitely going on the 'permanent list'.

Charlie Forbes

29th January 2025 at 23:15

Waiting on a delivery of lemon bitters and pink grapefruit, I made a riff using orange juice and citric acid (to pull the citrus forward and closer to grapefruit) and lavender bitters (to align w/ the floral notes in gin and St. Germaine. Not bad!

Shannon Brown

13th November 2024 at 06:54

I didn’t care for this one. I suspect it was the lemon bitters that killed it. It needed less bitter and more sour to be balanced imo.

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