Clover Club: Sweet and Tart Classic Cocktail
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This Clover Club cocktail is simultaneously sweet and tart. Learn how to make this frothy pre-Prohibition cocktail at home in just five minutes.
Our quest to travel the world through cocktails has taken us home. Well, not literally. Hear us out…
As it turns out, the Clover Club cocktail was originally created just one mile from where we lived in Philadelphia for a decade. While we didn’t actually drink Clover Clubs when we lived in Philadelphia, the pre-Prohibition cocktail still reminds us of home.
Discover more pre-Prohibition cocktails.
Clover Club Cocktail History
The origin story of many cocktails is fuzzy. The Clover Club is not one of those cocktails. Instead, this is a classic cocktail with a definitive birth at Philadelphia’s Clover Club.
Formed in 1882, the Clover Club met on Philadelphia’s Broad Street in the historic Bellevue-Stratford building that currently functions as a luxury Hyatt Hotel with offices. Beyond drinking cocktails, members of this club lived by the following motto: Who enters here leaves care behind, leaves sorrow behind, leaves petty envies and jealousies behind.
Despite its altruistic ambitions, The Clover Club didn’t survive Prohibition or the 19th Amendment. However, the red drink named after the now-defunct club lives on in bars and lounges around the world.
Fun Fact
Prior to Prohibition and women’s suffrage, joining male-only clubs like the Clover Club was the norm for lawyers, journalists, bankers and other gentrified white men of privilege. Apparently, those captains of industry liked to drink and weren’t concerned about the color of their cocktails.
Ingredients
The Clover Club hits our sweet spot as a classic cocktail with just five ingredients including ice. These are the only ingredients required for the Clover Club recipe:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How to Craft a Clover Club Cocktail
Crafting a Clover Club cocktail is both easy and fast. Beyond squeezing fresh lemon juice and separating an egg white, these are the only required steps:
We’d be remiss if we didn’t address the elephant in the room, i.e., the inclusion of a raw egg white. To avoid any stomach discomfort, you’ll want to use the freshest available eggs for this recipe. You can use pasteurized egg white in lieu of fresh egg white if you’re squeamish.
The egg white is an important ingredient not for flavor but rather for achieving froth during the dry shake. But what is a dry shake?
Dry Shake Explanation
The phrase dry shake refers to shaking a cocktail without ice. Typical in cocktail recipes with egg whites, dry shaking causes the eggs to emulsify into a frothy foam.
You’re now ready to make your own Clover Club at home! Sure, you could order this classic cocktail at a bar in a city like Philadelphia or New York, but making one at home is highly satisfying, not to mention cost-effective.
Variations
The Clover Club is a sour cocktail in the same family as the Bee’s Knees and Tom Collins. We recommend you follow our classic Clover Club recipe before you try one or more of the following variations:
Discover 10 essential bar tools for the home mixologist.
Clover Club Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ounces gin
- 1/2 ounce grenadine
- 3/4 ounce lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 1 egg white
- 1 lemon peel (garnish)
- ice cubes (for shaking)
Instructions
- Combine gin, grenadine (or raspberry syrup), lemon juice and egg white in a shaker. Do not add ice.
- Shake vigorously until ingredients are mixed and egg white emulsifies.
- Add several ice cubes and shake again until the liquid is chilled.
- Strain into a coupe glass.
- Add lemon twist as garnish.
Notes
- Slice the lemon twist from the lemon peel before you squeeze out the lemon juice.
- You can use fresh raspberries as garnish instead of or in addition to the lemon twist.
- We like to use a coupe glass, but a small martini glass will work too.
Nutrition
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
The Clover Club was invented in Philadelphia.
Gin, Grenadine Syrup, Egg White, Fresh Lemon Juice and Ice
Your favorite gin is the best gin for this cocktail recipe.
No. You can replace the egg white with pasteurized egg white or aquafaba if you’re concerned about ingesting raw eggs.
The Clover Club is shaken, not stirred.
We like to serve this cocktail in a coupe glass, but you could use a small martini glass instead.
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