Despite the modern appearance, the Clover Club actually predates prohibition. The cocktail originated in Philadelphia as early as the late 1800’s. While it was popular, it was nearly lost to history during prohibition and the following period. One of the many cocktails that owes it’s re-emergence to Reagan’s Joy of Mixology, the Clover Club is a beautiful, rich, and elegant cocktail that deserves your attention and time to make.
Clover Club
The Clover Club is smooth, gentle, fruity, and balanced. The herbal notes of the gin combine with the alpine notes of the dry vermouth to give a subtle herbal complexity to the background. The fruitiness lays over the top as various bright wine notes mingle with fresh raspberry and pops of citrus. The creaminess of the egg whites binds everything together, and makes the drink feel rich. The formula works and makes the Clover Club a must try classic.
Drink Notes & Recommendations
The hardest part of our Clover Club is preparing the raspberry syrup. Our raspberry syrup is a significantly gentler, less aggressive syrup, and is lighter in color. Most of the other ingredients will be fairly standard.
- Gin – This recipe can use London Dry or Plymouth Gin. Given the egg white’s nature to gentle the gin, we’d even suggest that contemporary gins like Aviator will work well here. In ours, we used Plymouth, which featured a nice smoothness.
- Dry Vermouth – We used our standard Dolin Dry Vermouth here, and it works very well. As the dry vermouth is working as an accent, feel free to switch it up and see how it adjusts the drink.
- Lemon Juice – For best results, use fresh squeezed.
- Egg White – The recipe here calls for ½ oz of Egg White. For a large egg, this works out to about half an egg white. If you’re opposed to eggs, consider using Aquafaba (chickpea water from the can) at approximately 20g. You can also use cocktail foamer or pasteurized egg white.
- Raspberry Syrup – See below for instructions.
In terms of technique, you’re going to need to dry shake. One recommendation for making dry shaking more effective is to add a cocktail spring or ice cube to add a point to disrupt the proteins. Shake for 30 seconds, remove the spring (the ice cube will have fully melted by this point) and then add ice. Shake until chilled (8-12 seconds), and then double strain to eliminate any stray egg proteins.
Raspberry Syrup
- 120 g sugar
- 120 g water
- 40 g raspberries
Combine water, sugar, and raspberries in a small mason jar or sous vide bag. If using a mason jar, you may gently muddle the raspberries with the sugar for added color and flavor. Seal, and heat for 2 hours @ 135. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and coffee filter. If desired, add a neutral grain spirit at 5-10% of the finished weight as a preservative. Refrigerate. Dispose of if any clouding or mold develops.
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