Clover Club – a brief history
The Clover Club’s origins can be traced back to Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in the late 1800s where the Clover Club, a club for Philadelphia’s elite, would socialise, do business and talk current affairs. A magnet for business leaders, lawyers and writers of the time, meetings would often include drinking. With its sharp flavour and bright day glow colour, the cocktail was a firm favourite amongst Philadelphia’s gentry. The cocktail’s popularity soon outgrew the club and by the start of the 1900s it could be found in a number of establishments across America. Despite its early popularity, the cocktail fell out of fashion for a period. With prohibition taking hold in America and the world recovering after WW1, gin, lemon and eggs were more expensive and harder to come by.
Thankfully for us, the cocktail has had somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, appearing in some well respected cocktail books including Joy of Mixology by the late Gaz Regan and bar own Julie Reiner, who named her Brooklyn bar after the cocktail.
Recipe
Ingredients
Garnish
A skewer of fresh raspberries
Method
Shake the gin, lemon juice, raspberry sugar syrup and egg white vigorously over ice until well chilled and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with the skewer of fresh raspberries.
*Raspberry sugar syrup – there are lots of ready-made raspberry sugar syrups available to purchase but it’s easy to make at home and all you need is water, sugar and raspberries. Bring half a cup of granulated sugar and half a cup of water to a boil then reduce the heat to low and add a cup of fresh raspberries. After a minute or so, once the raspberries have softened, break them down with a fork, and allow the liquid to simmer and dissolve for around 10 minutes until it reaches a syrup consistency. Strain the liquid to get rid of the seeds and keep refrigerated.
You can learn more about the many great Scottish Gins by visiting the links below.
