With Valentine’s Day coming up this weekend, we felt like it was high time to talk about the Clover Club cocktail. Yes, this is a pink drink, but it’s also one of the most iconic cocktails of the 1800s and the Philadelphia cocktail scene back in those days. Plus, it’s one of my favorite sour variations across the board.
All suitable reasons for you to make this your first-ever homemade pink cocktail.
The key to the Clover Club is raspberry. You need to build raspberry into the body of the drink via raspberry syrup. While you can make your own, you can also buy a bottle right here for $10. You can use the extra syrup to pour over ice cream, make raspberry sodas, or construct more Clover Clubs. You can also add dry vermouth, but that threatens to take away from the beautiful simplicity of the drink.
The rest is a pretty standard sour variation that’s very shaken. The most technical part is that you’ll need to use a little elbow grease on the shake to get that egg white nice and frothy (you don’t really need to dry shake this one first). Other than that, you’ll just need to squeeze and strain some fresh lemon juice, making the Clover Club easy to master over a weekend at home.
Let’s get shaking!
Clover Club
Ingredients:
- 3-oz. gin
- 1/2-oz. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2-oz. raspberry syrup
- 1 large egg white
- Fresh raspberries
- Ice
Two things, use a standard dry gin. You don’t want something overly wrought in the base as it can overwhelm the softer nuances of the cocktail.
Also, please use fresh, ethically raised eggs. They taste and froth better, if nothing else.
What You’ll Need:
- Cocktail glass, coupe, or Nick and Nora glass
- Cocktail shaker
- Cocktail strainer
- Jigger
- Juicer
- Sieve
- Cocktail stick
Method:
- Pre-chill your glass either overnight in the freezer or with fresh ice while mixing.
- Add gin, fresh lemon juice, egg white, and raspberry syrup to the shaker.
- Top the shaker with ice, affix the lid, and shake vigorously until the shaker is very well-chilled and completely frosted over (once the shaker fills too cold to go on holding it, shake for another ten seconds).
- Strain the glass into the pre-chill glass (remove ice first if needed).
- Let the cocktail rest for a minute so that a layer of whipped egg white creates a layer on the top of the cocktail.
- Spear three raspberries and balance the stick on the edge of the glass.
- Serve.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the drinks that makes you say “ahhhhh…” from the first sip. The raspberry body of the drink offers a bright-yet-slightly-earthy foundation. The botanicals from the gin just peek in through the fruit and citrus. The egg white turns into pure silk, making this a velvety sip.
It’s so refreshing. Light, yet full of strong flavors.
The best part is using your raspberries as little bowls to scoop out a little of the cocktail and egg white. You pop that raspberry into your mouth with the cocktail filling the cavity and you have a texture and flavor burst that’s tough to match. Hopefully a nice start to a very sensuous weekend.
