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

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

How to make

Glassware

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

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

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of French Blonde contains 156 calories

Alcohol content:

1.1 standard drinks
11.47% alc./vol. (22.94° proof)
15.2 grams of pure alcohol

Gallery

Comments & Discussion

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Frederic D. Premium Member 15w

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

Florian Ruf Premium Member 15w

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 Premium Member 23w

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 24w

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 Premium Member 33w

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 Premium Member 15w

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

G. M. Genovese Premium Member 15w

No. I had no aromatized wine (i.e. Lillet Blanc) so I subbed in Bitter Bianco.

Calvin Grant Premium Member 44w

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 1y

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

Edward Halliwell 1y

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 Premium Member 1y

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!