White Lady
Dry shake ∙ 5 min ∙ 23.9% ABV ∙
The White Lady is a gin sour built with triple sec, lemon juice, and egg white, shaken until frothy and strained up into a coupe. A silky, egg-white foam cushions the crisp lemon bite, with the gin's juniper backbone and a faint orange edge lingering into a clean, dry finish.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 50 mlTriple sec 20 mlLemon juice 20 mlSugar syrup 5 mlEgg white 15 ml
- Strain back into the shaker
- Dry shake (without ice)
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express a lemon twist over the cocktail and use as garnish
Tips
- Shake hard with ice first, then strain out the ice and dry-shake the same mix to build a stable, silky foam.
- Measure the sugar syrup carefully against the lemon juice — too little and the drink turns sharply tart instead of balanced.
- Fine-strain into a pre-chilled coupe so the foam sits undisturbed and the drink stays cold longer.
History
Harry MacElhone is generally credited with devising the White Lady in 1919 at Ciro's Club in London, in a version made with crème de menthe, triple sec, and lemon juice rather than gin. He is said to have reworked the recipe at his own Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1929, replacing the crème de menthe with gin to create the drink recognized today, aligning it with the sidecar family of drinks that substitute gin for brandy.
This origin is disputed: London's Savoy Hotel credits its own bartender, Harry Craddock, with creating the now-dominant gin-based version at the hotel's American Bar, and Craddock published a White Lady recipe in his 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book with a higher proportion of gin. A separate claim names another bartender, Victor Cabrin, as the recipe's creator, based on period London newspaper attributions. Early recipes by both MacElhone and Craddock did not include egg white; that addition, credited to later Savoy bartender Peter Dorelli, became standard afterward.
FAQ
What is in a White Lady?
A White Lady is made with London dry gin, triple sec, lemon juice, sugar syrup, and egg white. It is double-shaken — once with ice, then again without — to build a stable foam, fine-strained into a chilled coupe, and finished with an expressed lemon twist.
What kind of gin is best for a White Lady?
London dry gin is the standard choice, since its crisp, juniper-forward profile holds up against the lemon juice rather than getting overpowered by it.
