Clover Club Cocktail

The Clover Club Cocktail is a drink that pre-dates Prohibition in the United States, and is named for the Philadelphia men's club of the same name, which met in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel at South Broad and Walnut Streets in Center City. The Clover Club itself dates to 1896, as seen in the 1897 book, The Clover Club of Philadelphia, page 172 by Mary R. Deacon. Brooklyn's Clover Club restaurant claims that the Philadelphia men's club dates to 1882 and lasted until "the 1920s."[1]

Published recipes for the Clover Club drink appear as early as 1917:

The Ideal Bartender (1917) by Thomas Bullock, page 27: "Fill large Bar glass full Fine Ice. 2 pony Raspberry Syrup. 2 jigger Dry Gin. 1 jigger French Vermouth. White of 1 Egg. Shake well; strain into Cocktail glass and serve."

Mrs. Norton's Cook-book: Selecting, Cooking, and Serving for the Home Table (1917) by Jeanette Young Norton, page 512: "Clover Club: The juice of half a lemon, a sixth jigger of grenadine, one jigger of gin, French vermouth."

Robert Hess claims[2] "It has a long history dating back to at least 1910, and was enjoyed by the captains of industry who were members of the famous club."[3] In its heyday, the drink was described by Jack Townsend as being enjoyed by the pre-prohibition gentleman who would have fit in with those of the club, and was a "Distinguished patron of the oak-paneled lounge."[4] However, by the time that Townsend was writing about the drink it was becoming unpopular, and was eventually all but forgotten.[4] The drink seems to have been forgotten partly due to the use of raw egg in the cocktail, which many people shy away from, and partly due to the complexity of its preparation (see below).[5] Despite the use of what some may consider to be strange ingredients the cocktail is enjoyable, and has been described as tart with the added syrup giving the drink complexity, and the egg white providing body as well as a foamy head.[2][6]

A Clover Club cocktail served at Rye in San Francisco

The drink can be a complex one to make due to the extra steps involved to get the head of foam on top of the drink. Several sources recommend that the drink be "dry shaken" (shaken without ice) with one source suggesting this be done for at least a minute.[5][6] At this point ice should be added to the shaker to chill and dilute the drink. As of December 2014, Brooklyn's Clover Club restaurant used a traditional recipe of gin, dry vermouth, lemon, raspberry and egg white.[7]

There are several variations of this drink with the most common replacing the raspberry syrup with grenadine or red currant syrup.[6]

A Vocaloid producer by the name of "Yuuyu-P" has a song featuring Hatsune Miku named after this cocktail, "Clover Club", in which she describes the recipe.[8]

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