Clover Club Cocktail Recipe

The Clover Club is a simple cocktail made with gin, fresh lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and an egg white. The tangy cocktail is served in a coupe glass and garnished with fresh raspberries.

This pre-Prohibition drink is essentially a Gin Sour that swaps simple syrup for a raspberry-based sweetener. The syrup gives the drink a pink-orange hue and adds fruity sweetness.

The Clover Club was invented in the late 1800s and was named after the Philadelphia social club where the drink first came about. The venue, located at Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford hotel was described as “a club for social enjoyments and cultivation of literary tastes, and the encouragement of hospitable intercourse” in an 1897 handbook for the club written by Mary R. Deacon, daughter of the Charles R. Deacon who served as the club’s secretary from 1882 to 1896.

The drink became a mainstay at the club’s bar and the recipe found its way to many early 20th-century cocktail books including William “Cocktail” Boothby’s 1934 World Drinks and How to Mix Them. In it, Boothby calls for grenadine in lieu of raspberry syrup and an addition of grated nutmeg as garnish. He also offers a few variations (Clover Club No. 2–4, the Clover Leaf, and Clover Royal) some of which include a garnish of mint, others with cream, and a few calling for French dry vermouth.

After Prohibition, the drink fell out of fashion until the early 2000s when, during the craft cocktail resurgence, bartenders looked to late 19th and early 20th century cocktail books for inspiration. Among these bartenders was Julie Reiner, now an icon in the hospitality world, who was so inspired by 19th century classic cocktails that she opened The Clover Club in New York City in 2008. Like some of Boothby’s variations, Reiner’s version of the Clover Club cocktail replaces some of the gin with dry vermouth to soften the drink and bring out added depth and complexity.

What makes the Clover Club work?

The Clover Club employs a classic sour ratio of equal parts sweet and sour, combined with twice as much of a base spirit. The gin’s herbaceous flavor profile creates a counterpoint to the citrus and bright fruit notes of lemon juice and raspberry syrup, bringing needed aromatics.

Though you can find premade raspberry liqueurs and sweetenders, when made fresh, raspberry syrup contains both sweet and tart notes that create balance within itself. However, in a pinch, bottled versions will work, as will swapping the ingredient with grenadine.

Like other cocktails in the sour category, this drink calls for an egg white and employs a dry shake (where the ingredients are first shaken without ice) to emulsify and aerate the egg white within the other ingredients. This technique creates a silky, smooth, and almost fluffy drink with a satisfying texture.