Watercolor illustration of a Clover Club cocktail in a coupe glass with three raspberries speared on a pick on the pink foam, faint shaker outline beside it, on a dark ash surface

Cocktail· London Dry

Clover Club

The Clover Club is a pre-Prohibition gin sour made with gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and egg white, shaken hard and strained into a chilled coupe. The drink originated at the Clover Club, a Philadelphia men's social club active from the 1880s into the early 1900s, and was widely popular before falling out of fashion during Prohibition. It is dark pink, tart, lightly sweet, and served with a thick foamy cap from the egg white.

3 min ModerateCoupeShaken

Ingredients

  • 2 oz London Dry gin
  • 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz raspberry syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • 3 raspberries, for garnish
The Shaken Set

Built for shaken drinks

The Shaken Set

Boston Shaker · Hawthorne Strainer · Jigger

$50.00 Save $10.00

Method

  1. Add the gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and egg white to a shaker with ice.
  2. Shake hard until well-chilled and foamy, about 15 seconds.
  3. Strain into a chilled coupe.
  4. Spear 3 raspberries on a cocktail pick and rest them on the foam.

Garnish

3 raspberries on a cocktail pick.

Pro tip

For a taller, more stable foam, dry-shake first. Combine everything except ice in the shaker and shake hard for 10 seconds, then add ice and shake again until well-chilled. The egg-white proteins emulsify better without ice and dilution fighting them.

Frequently asked

Can I make this without egg white?
Use 3/4 oz of aquafaba (the liquid drained from a can of chickpeas) in place of the egg white. The proteins behave nearly identically and produce a comparable foam. The flavor difference is negligible once the raspberry syrup and lemon juice are in the glass.
Which gin works best?
London Dry. The juniper and citrus backbone holds its shape against the raspberry syrup and the egg-white foam without getting buried. Contemporary or floral gins can read muddy under that combination. Plymouth works if you want a softer, less juniper-forward result.
Why is my foam thin?
Two reasons, usually. Either the shake was too short to whip enough air into the egg white, or the ice melted into the foam and broke it. Fix the first by dry-shaking before adding ice (10 seconds, no ice, then add ice and shake again). Fix the second by straining and serving immediately.

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