Clover Club
A berry and balanced gin cocktail ∙ Dry shake ∙ 5 min ∙ 20.7% ABV ∙
The Clover Club is a pre-Prohibition gin sour, made in its modern form with lemon, raspberry purée, dry vermouth, and egg white, named for a Philadelphia club. Tart lemon and sweet raspberry sit over juniper gin beneath a silky egg-white foam, with a dry vermouth backbone — an elegant pre-dinner or brunch drink.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Dry shake (without ice) all ingredients: London dry gin 45 mlRaspberry purée 20 mlDry vermouth 15 mlLemon juice 15 mlEgg white 10 ml
- Shake again with ice
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express a lemon twist over the cocktail and discard
- Garnish with a raspberry
Tips
- Add a splash of simple syrup if your raspberry purée is too tart.
History
The Clover Club is a pre-Prohibition American cocktail named for a Philadelphia men's club chartered in 1882, which met at Philadelphia's Hotel Bellevue and drew journalists, lawyers, and business figures of the city. Exactly who invented the cocktail and when remains undocumented — it isn't mentioned anywhere in the club's own surviving records from 1882 to 1897. The earliest known recipe instead comes from outside the club entirely: a June 1901 piece in the New York Press by Michael Killackey, head bartender at the Waldorf-Astoria, who listed a "Clover Club Cocktail" of egg white, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and Plymouth gin among his recommended summer drinks, helping carry it from Philadelphia into New York's bars. A closely related recipe, the "Clover Leaf," appeared in 1908 in J. A. Grohusko's Jack's Manual, adding a sprig of mint; cocktail historians still dispute which of the two names and formulas came first, and many now treat them as functionally interchangeable. The first appearance of the drink in a dedicated cocktail book under the exact name "The Clover Club Cocktail" came in 1910, in Raymond E. Sullivan's The Barkeeper's Manual. The original build was a gin sour of lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and egg white, with dry vermouth entering some early-twentieth-century versions.
The drink's fortunes soured quickly after its heyday — by 1939, Charles Browne's The Gun Club Drink Book panned it outright, and it was nearly forgotten for decades before a modern craft-cocktail revival restored its reputation.
FAQ
What is in a Clover Club cocktail?
A Clover Club is made with London dry gin, lemon juice, raspberry purée, egg white, and a measure of dry vermouth. It is shaken and served straight up in a cocktail glass, garnished with a lemon twist and a raspberry. Some historic recipes use raspberry syrup instead of the purée used here.
Why is it called a Clover Club cocktail?
It is named for the Clover Club, a Philadelphia men's club chartered in 1882 that met at Philadelphia's Hotel Bellevue. Captains of industry among its members drank it, and the cocktail carried the club's name into print by 1910.
What's the difference between a Pink Lady and a Clover Club?
Both are shaken pink gin sours with egg white, but a Clover Club takes its color and flavor from raspberry, while a Pink Lady uses grenadine and often applejack. The Clover Club also includes dry vermouth, giving it a drier backbone.
How do you make Julie Reiner's Clover Club?
Julie Reiner, of the Clover Club bar in Brooklyn, builds it with gin, fresh lemon juice, dry vermouth, raspberry syrup, and egg white. Combine in a shaker, dry-shake without ice, then shake again with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
