Clover Club Cocktail

Dating back to the late 1800's, the Clover Club is a classic that mixes Gin and Raspberry Syrup for a great cocktail you're sure to enjoy. Although this isn't a sour, this cocktail has egg white to add some foam to it.

The name of this cocktail comes, obviously, from a club called the Clover Club, which was a men's club in Philadelphia at the time. The Clover Club wasn't "that kind" of men's club. It was a club for wealthy men of the time, designed as a place for them to relax and, one would assume, drink cocktails.

Because of the sweet flavours combined with Gin, as well as the egg white, you may find this a slightly unusual cocktail, but it's a classic for a reason, and it tastes great. If you find the addition of the sugar too sweet for your taste, feel free to remove it or alter the amount. Make this cocktail for you.

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL Gin
20 mL Lemon Juice
20 mL Raspberry Syrup*
1 Egg White
1 tsp White Sugar
Garnish with Raspberries

Instructions

Add Gin, Lemon Juice, Raspberry Syrup, Egg White, and Sugar to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice.
Shake hard for longer than usual. We're not dry shaking this cocktail so the extra shaking will help the egg white.
Strain into a Coupe glass.
Garnish, serve.

Notes

You can make Raspberry Syrup at home with this recipe.

The Clover Club Cocktail has moved in and out of fashion through the years, but can still easily be found on a lot of cocktail menus around the world. With that, while it was originally served to wealthy men in the late 1800's, by the early 1900's it was more considered a woman's drink, possibly because of the raspberries; but there's no information on that.

These days a Clover Club Cocktail can be enjoyed by anybody, regardless of gender or social status. It's a great drink.

Our Review of the Clover Club Cocktail

Thanks to its use of Lemon Juice and Egg White, the Clover Club takes elements of classic sour style cocktails and makes the welcomed addition of Raspberry Syrup. Other than that, the Clover Club is essentially just a riff on the Gin Sour. I’m not saying this to be critical of the Clover Club Cocktail (I actually quite like it), it’s just interesting how much a bit of Raspberry Syrup changes up a cocktail recipe.

And that’s the first thing I like about this cocktail. The addition of the Raspberry Syrup to change this cocktail from a Gin Sour into a Clover Club is small and incremental, but that’s how new cocktail recipes are made and that’s how recipes and styles evolve. You don’t suddenly go from straight Vodka to Pornstar Martini overnight, these things progress.

Because of that, enjoying a Clover Club Cocktail makes me think about all the cocktails I like, how they’re similar, how they’re different, and how they came to be. Perhaps this cocktail just got me when I was in a sentimental mood… Since this is a website all about how to use the ingredients you have to make cocktails, I further love the incremental nature of a cocktail like this. If you can make a Gin Sour, all you need is one more ingredient to try this cocktail recipe, and maybe you already have it on hand!

But anyway, on to the flavour. Raspberry can be quite tart, but obviously used in a syrup sweetens things up a bit. In addition to that, the recipe adds even more sugar. It’s not a particularly sweet cocktail, but I wouldn’t call it sour either. If I had to choose though, the Clover Club leans to the sweeter side of things. This can sometimes be unusual with Gin, which often tends to like lighter flavours, but it’s quite a pleasing cocktail.

Being an older cocktail recipe, the Clover Club doesn’t have anything unusual about it. It doesn’t use a strange ingredient or aim to surprise you, it just is, and that’s kind of nice. Any depth or interest in the flavour is created by the Gin, so it’s easy to get a different experience just by changing that up.

The Clover Club Cocktail is well worth trying.

8.5/10

Review by Sarah

And now for more cocktail recipes!

Take a look below for a few more areas of the site we think you might be interested in. Or stay here and make yourself a Clover Club Cocktail. It’s up to you!

Top 10 Gin cocktail recipes: we’ll start with our favourite Gin cocktail recipes. We assume you like Gin since you’re taking a look at the recipe for the Clover Club!

Top 20 classic cocktail recipes: the Clover Club cocktail is also a classic. Stick with the classics and take a look at some of our favourites.

All Gin cocktail recipes: if you want to decide on your own favourites, flip through all of our Gin cocktail recipes.

All classic cocktail recipes: or flip through all the classic cocktail recipes. There are tons!