Pink Lady

The Pink Lady is a fun cocktail that features Gin, Applejack, Lemon Juice, Grenadine, and an Egg White for a great appearance and mouth feel. This brings a number of interesting flavours that play together, especially with the combination of the Gin and Applejack.

This Prohibition-era cocktail was seen as a woman's drink during its hayday, likely due to the colour and possibly slight sweetness. However, there are a lot of similarities between this cocktail and a straight Gin Sour, which doesn't have the same perception. We here at What Cocktail Can I Make don't see a cocktail as a "man's drink" or a "woman's drink," but looking at the history of drinks and how they've been perceived in the past is interesting to think about and discuss.

These days you should enjoy any cocktail you like if it's to your taste, and this one looks like a winner for anybody.

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

45 mL Gin London Dry is preferred, but use what you like.
15 mL Applejack
20 mL Lemon Juice
10 mL Grenadine
1 Egg White
Garnish with a cherry

Instructions

Pour Gin, Applejack, Lemon Juice, Grenadine, and Egg White into a cocktail shaker without ice in it. Dry shake it to get some volume from the egg.
Add ice to the shaker and shake everything again to get it cold.
Strain into a Coupe glass.
Garnish, serve, and enjoy

Notes

While you may be able to use Apple Brandy in this cocktail in a pinch, keep in mind that Applejack is a little bit sweeter than the Brandy. Applejack is also aged differently from Apple Brandy so will have other subtle flavours to it. While Applejack can be considered a type of Brandy though, just like how Cognac is a type of Brandy, there are differences in the styles!

While we're talking about ingredients, not everybody is OK with raw Egg White. If you're not comfortable with it, perhaps skip this cocktail. You may be able to skip it, but it takes away a lot from the feel of this drink.

A Few More Things About the Pink Lady

As mentioned earlier, the Pink Lady was originally seen as a woman’s drink. It’s not surprising given the name, combined with the colour and flavours. It was a more sexist time when there were “men’s drinks” and “women’s drinks.” Today we’re glad that we can drink whatever we want, regardless of who you are. Sure there are some backwards people who will judge others for drinking the “wrong” drink, but, at the end of the day, people should drink what they like! So whether that’s a bright pink cocktail or a big pint of Stout, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.

Even if you don’t think the Pink Lady is for you, one has to admit that this is a good looking cocktail. It’s not a bright red, but rather a soft red, or pink obviously! Adding Egg White to a cocktail always creates a nice froth on top that just feels so welcoming. So, even if you think this drink isn’t for you, we know you’re tempted!

Is making more than one Pink Lady Cocktail OK?

Shaking a couple of these cocktails at the same time will work just fine, but only two at a time. When you’re working with Egg White, it’s important that it’s well shaken so that it gets frothy. If you have too much in the shaker, you won’t be able to do this.

Can this cocktail be made in advance to serve later?

No, the Pink Lady Cocktail should be served right away. The presentation, taste, and mouthfeel of this cocktail relies on the froth from the Egg White, which will go away if the drink isn’t enjoyed right away.

What’s the optimal time to try a Pink Lady?

Just because a cocktail has Lemon Juice and Egg White in it doesn’t mean it’s a sour, but you can probably see a few similarities between the Pink Lady and the classic sour formula: base spirit, citrus (typically lemon), sugar, and an Egg White. The only real addition here is the Grenadine (we’re counting the Applejack as part of the base spirit). So in a lot of ways, the Pink Lady is just a Gin and Applejack sour that’s further sweetened with Grenadine. But it changes the cocktail up considerably, both in taste and appearance.

Why are we going on about sours when we should be talking when it’s a good time to have a Pink Lady? Well, we need to draw some parallels here to justify our thinking.

Like a sour cocktail, the Pink Lady works very well after a meal. A little bit of sugar and a little bit of tartness is a very common combination for desserts, especially pastries, so why can’t it be a combination for a cocktail? Enjoy a Pink Lady for a dessert, you’ll love it!

How strong is the Pink Lady Cocktail

We’ll stay with the comparison to a sour cocktail here, particularly the Gin Sour since the Pink Lady is so close to it. The Gin Sour has 60 mL of Gin in it while the Pink Lady has 45 mL of Gin plus the 15 mL of Applejack. Combined that’s still 60 mL of spirit. So it’s the same amount of alcohol as a Gin Sour! And it’s just as diluted as a just sour (actually a tiny bit more thanks to the Grenadine). And a Gin Sour has the same amount of spirit as pretty much every other sour cocktail recipe out there. And we’d put all those recipes at about average strength. So that’s our assessment.

What music goes best with the Pink Lady?

Like so many Prohibition-era cocktails, the Pink Lady is an amazing cocktail but it doesn’t have any stand out features that push it to a specific genre of music. Cocktails like this look and taste good, and they’re creative in their own way, but, in a lot of ways, they were built for socialising. Cocktails like the Pink Lady were made to be drunk in speak easies while having fun, possibly with a Big Band blaring in the background. So, while we say that a cocktail like this doesn’t have a defining feature to make a genre of music stand out, the fact that they’re made for a speak easy is, perhaps, its defining feature.

So stay with the speak easy vibe. Enjoy some Big Band Jazz while having a Pink Lady. Pretend it’s the Prohibition. At least you don’t have to worry about getting raided.

Take a look through the website for more cocktail recipes:

If you’re liking what you’re seeing here, well, why not make a Pink Lady? While you’re drinking that you can browse more cocktail recipes to figure out what to make next. While we have plenty of recipes on this site, we’ll concentrate on what we think you’ll like, based on the Pink Lady.

Top 10 Gin cocktail recipes: the Pink Lady Cocktail features Gin, so we figured you’d like to see the Gin cocktail recipes that we like the best.

All Gin cocktail recipes: or maybe you didn’t like our suggestions in our top ten. Take a look at all of our other Gin cocktail recipes so you can find the favourites of your own.