IBA official cocktail | |
---|---|
Type | Cocktail |
Base spirit | |
Served | Straight up: chilled, without ice |
Standard drinkware | Cocktail glass |
IBA specified ingredients |
|
Preparation | Dry shake ingredients to emulsify, add ice, shake and served straight up. |
Commonly served | All Day |
Clover Club Cocktail recipe at International Bartenders Association |
The Clover Club Cocktail is a cocktail consisting of gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and an egg white. The egg white is not added for the purpose of giving the drink flavor, but rather acts as an emulsifier. Thus when the drink is shaken a characteristic foamy head is formed.
The Clover Club Cocktail is a drink that pre-dates Prohibition in the United States, and is named for the Philadelphia men's club of the same name, which met in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel at South Broad and Walnut Streets in Center City. The Clover Club was chartered in 1882. [1]
Of the cocktail, Robert Hess claims [2] "It has a long history [...] and was enjoyed by the captains of industry who were members of the famous club." [3]
Published recipes for the cocktails, nearly identical to the modern "Clover Club Cocktail" appear as early as 1908. and J. A. Grohusko's Jack's Manual features a drink called "A Clover Leaf." Grohusko writes that it "is said to be popular in the city of brotherly love. Certainly it is decorative for it has a soft orchid color, with a rim of white." The recipe itself features sugar, Gordon's Gin, raspberry syrup, egg white and a sprig of mint. [4] Interestingly, cocktail books such as Applegreen's Bar Book which published several editions and mentioned the Clover Club bar in its 1904 edition [5] did not include the "Clover Leaf Cocktail" Until 1909. [6]
Lifestyle and art sections of newspapers of the era included briefs about the cocktail describing it as "now new." [7]
Its earliest published appearance in a cocktail book as "The Clover Club Cocktail" was in 1910 in Raymond E. Sullivan's The Barkeeper's Manual. [8] His recipe included a mint sprig as garnish. The mint leaf would later fall of favor in the "Cocktail Club" and its inclusion would make the drink the "Clover Leaf."
In its heyday, the drink was described by Jack Townsend as being enjoyed by the pre-prohibition gentleman who would have fit in with those of the club, and was a "Distinguished patron of the oak-paneled lounge." [9] However, by the time that Townsend was writing about the drink it was becoming unpopular, and was eventually all but forgotten. [9] 1931's Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett describes the Clover Club's quick rise and fall. "That was before the 'Clover Club' had won in New York temples of thirst a wide but short-lived popularity." [10]
The drink rapidly declined in popularity. In The Gun Club Drink Book, by Charles Browne, published in 1939, he panned the once popular drink. "A clover club cocktail is a Philadelphia concoction, maybe one of the jokes indulged in at the Clover Club. It's an awful mixture. [...] This will make three cocktails if there be found three people who want them." [11] It's unknown exactly which variation he was panning – by the late 1930s several variations of the "Clover Club" went under the name. Other ingredients included cream, nutmeg and vermouth. [12]
Among the theories for its rapid decline is the use of raw egg in the cocktail, which many people shy away from, and partly due to the complexity of its preparation (see below). [13] Despite the use of what some may consider to be strange ingredients the cocktail is enjoyable, and has been described as tart with the added syrup giving the drink complexity, and the egg white providing body as well as a foamy head. [2] [14]
Despite its origination in the fashionable Clover Club, the 1930's The Home Bartender's Guide recommended it for "Tuesday Afternoon Sewing Club" and "Crazy-Quilting Parties," suggesting a change in status that might have led to its decline. [15]
The drink can be a complex one to make due to the extra steps involved to get the head of foam on top of the drink. Several sources recommend that the drink be "dry shaken" (shaken without ice) with one source suggesting this be done for at least a minute. [13] [14] At this point ice should be added to the shaker to chill and dilute the drink. As of December 2014, Brooklyn's Clover Club restaurant used a traditional recipe of gin, dry vermouth, lemon, raspberry and egg white. [16]
There are several variations of this drink with the most common replacing the raspberry syrup with grenadine or red currant syrup. [14]
A Vocaloid producer by the name of "Yuuyu-P" has a song featuring Hatsune Miku named after this cocktail, "Clover Club", in which she describes the recipe. [17]
“How long has it been since I’ve heard anyone order a Clover Club. They were quite wicked. Not as bad as a Martini, but much more deceptive.” - from “The Late, Late Show,” short story by John O’Hara, collected in his “Waiting for Winter,” 1966, also in an O’Hara collection, “The New York Stories,” 2013
The Tom Collins is a Collins cocktail made from gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water. First memorialized in writing in 1876 by Jerry Thomas, "the father of American mixology", this "gin and sparkling lemonade" drink is typically served in a Collins glass over ice. A "Collins mix" can be bought premixed at stores and enjoyed alone or with gin.
French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. It is also called a 75 Cocktail, or in French simply a Soixante Quinze.
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A popular variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka instead of gin for the cocktail's base spirit.
A Stinger is a duo cocktail made by adding crème de menthe to brandy. The cocktail's origins can be traced to the United States in the 1890s, and the beverage remained widely popular in America until the 1970s. It was seen as a drink of the upper class, and has had a somewhat wide cultural impact.
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks.
The Bronx is a cocktail. It is essentially a Perfect Martini with orange juice added. It was ranked number three in "The World's 10 Most Famous Cocktails in 1934" behind the Martini (#1) and the Manhattan (#2). In the 1934 movie "The Thin Man", the lead actor compared the methods for shaking the Manhattan, the Bronx and the Martini.
The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a book about cocktails by David A. Embury, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio for sour type cocktails.
A "fizz" is a mixed drink variation on the older sours family of cocktail. Its defining features are an acidic juice and carbonated water.
The Pegu Club or the Pegu is a gin-based cocktail that was the signature drink of Burma's Pegu Club. The club was located just outside Rangoon, and its members were those Britons who were senior government and military officials and prominent businessmen. The club was named after the Pegu, a Burmese river.
The Alexander is a cocktail consisting of gin, cocoa liqueur, and cream. A variation, the Brandy Alexander, uses cognac instead of gin.
The Pink Lady is a classic gin-based cocktail with a long history. Its pink color is due to adding grenadine.
A lemon drop is a vodka-based cocktail that has a lemony, sweet and sour flavor, prepared using lemon juice, triple sec and simple syrup. It has been described as a variant of, or as "a take on", the Vodka Martini, but is in actual fact a closer to a White Lady variant. It is typically prepared and served straight up – chilled with ice and strained.
The Casino is an IBA official cocktail made with gin, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters and fresh lemon juice.
The Zazarack cocktail, later spelled Zazarac, is an American cocktail which may be related to the Sazerac, although it might have originated completely independent of the more famous drink.
A Damn the Weather is a Prohibition Era cocktail made with Gin, sweet vermouth, orange juice, and a sweetener. It is served shaken and chilled, often with a slice of orange or other citrus fruit.
The Blackthorn is an Irish whiskey or sloe gin based cocktail. Both versions emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic cocktail with its origins in the 1910's made with gin, crème de violette, dry vermouth and absinthe.
The Airmail or Air Mail is a classic cocktail based on rum, lime or lemon juice, honey, and sparkling wine. It was probably created during or shortly after the period of prohibition in the United States of America or on Cuba, i.e. in the 1920s or 1930s.