In its early days, the Clover Club Cocktail was only available to a few selected people in Philadelphia. But it evolved into a drink every bartender should know and be able to mix.
The raspberry cocktail has a quite unique flavor profile for such a classic drink: sweet, sour, and fruity flavors dominate this delightful cocktail.
Quick Facts Clover Club Cocktail
- Method: shaken
- Flavor profile: well-balanced sweet and sour, fruity notes
- How to serve it: straight up
- Best glassware: coupe glass
- Alcohol content: ~ 18% ABV, 16.5 grams of alcohol per serving
Read on to learn about the history of the cocktail and how you can make it to perfection at home.
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz Gin - London Dry or Plymouth
- 0.5 oz Fresh lemon juice
- 0.5 oz Dry vermouth
- 0.5 oz Raspberry syrup
- 1 egg white
- 2-4 Raspberries for garnish
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into a cocktail shaker without ice and shake vigorously.1.5 oz Gin, 0.5 oz Fresh lemon juice, 0.5 oz Dry vermouth, 0.5 oz Raspberry syrup, 1 egg white
- Open the cocktail shaker, add plenty of ice, and shake until the cocktail is well-chilled.
- Strain into a well-chilled cocktail glass.
- Garnish with raspberries speared on a cocktail pick.2-4 Raspberries for garnish
Nutrition
Ingredients & Recommendations
The Clover Club recipe calls for five ingredients: gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, Dry Vermouth, raspberry syrup, and one egg white.
- Gin: I recommend using London Dry or Plymouth Gin. We like to use Sipsmith, Tanqueray, or Beefeater - all three London Dry. Plymouth is a dry gin type with more pronounced citrus notes that also works very well.
- Dry Vermouth: This is a French fortified wine infused with herbs and botanicals. Two of our favorite brands for cocktails are Noilly Prat and Dolin Dry.
- Egg white: The egg white is responsible for the smooth and silky mouthfeel and the creaminess of the Clover Club cocktail. It doesn't alter the flavor but is still essential for the drink.
- Raspberry Syrup: Go for one of the renowned quality brands like Monin or Giffard. If you don't have raspberry syrup, there are options to substitute it that get you beautiful variations of the traditional recipe.
Why is Egg White Essential?
The Clover Club recipe asks for egg white because it gives the cocktail a velvety texture and creates a beautiful foamy top.
Many cocktails recipes include egg white as an optional ingredient, but the Clover Club is not one of them. There is absolutely no way you can achieve the required creaminess and characteristic look of the cocktail without a foamy ingredient.
Yet, if you don't want to use raw egg white in your drinks, there's a vegan alternative called Aquafaba.
Best Practices for Mixing
Since you want a thick and consistent foam on top, one of the top tips is to perform a dry shake. That means shaking all ingredients without ice for about 20 seconds and then shaking them a second time with ice (wet shake).
Now, if this technique does not get you a decent foamy top, consider reverse dry-shaking. Here, you first shake with ice, then remove the ice with the help of a cocktail strainer and shake again.
We advise only to do this if a regular dry shake doesn't work for you because it takes longer. And more importantly, your Clover Club Cocktail is not as cold as it could be.
Having said that - regardless of whether you dry or reverse dry shake, you should chill your coupe glass before mixing & pouring your cocktail. Since you serve the Clover Club without ice, this helps keep its contents at a low temperature for longer.
Variations of the Clover Club
The raspberry syrup is the element most suitable for twists and tweaks. Basically, you have two options that still maintain the overall character of the Clover Club:
- Option one is to muddle six raspberries with 0.25 ounces of fine sugar (or simple syrup). Use this mix as a substitute for raspberry syrup, and you will get an even fresher version of the Clover Club.
- Option two is to use raspberry liqueur for a slightly less sweet and more boozy version of this classic. You can opt, for instance, for the crème de framboise from Giffard.
There are claims that the original recipe included grenadine instead of raspberry. However, despite some recipes asking for grenadine, it wasn't, in fact, part of the original recipe. -And it certainly isn't the best way to make this cocktail. Grenadine is too heavy, and most importantly, does have no raspberry flavor.
Why is the Drink called Clover Club?
Clover Club was the name of the Gentlemen's Club in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, where the cocktail was invented. So, the newspaper that mentioned the Clover Club cocktail for the first time in writing in 1901 simply took the place of origin as a reference. And the name stuck.
History of the Clover Club Recipe
The cradle of the Clover Club lies in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. There, in the Bellevue-Stratford hotel, a selected group of men got together regularly to discuss current problems in the world.
Most of them were working in legal, business, and literary professions. Thus, the hotel was a Gentlemen's club that brought the male upper class together to talk and share a few drinks.
It was here that the Clover Club had been shaken and served for the first time sometime during the 1890s. For years, the cocktail was exclusively available to club members.
However, things changed when George Boldt, the former hotelier of the Bellevue-Stratford, moved to the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Together with him, the recipe for the cocktail arrived in New York City and was written down for the very first time:
The New York Press published its take on the drink as a mix of gin, lemon juice, sugar, raspberry syrup, and egg white. And the cocktail was a huge success. People just loved the unique distinct flavor and the unusual way of mixing up a drink. Yet, after the initial hype, the fame of the Clover Club drink faded.
First came prohibition and then, In the 50s, the fruity cocktail was suddenly disparagingly referred to as a "Lady's drink" by whiskey-loving businessmen. Once the era of soda guns and pre-made sour mixes began, the cocktail vanished almost completely. The craft cocktail era was over. Simple-to-make drinks were in!
Luckily, times are ever-changing, and old trends do come back. The craft of making cocktails with fresh and quality ingredients is as present as it has ever been. And with it, the delicious raspberry drink celebrated a remarkable comeback.
Thank you so much #cocktailsociety for gaving us these precious knowledge ...I really appreciate your words and information as well 🙌