The White Lady Cocktail ( History & How to do it )
July 24, 2022 2022-07-24 22:44The White Lady Cocktail ( History & How to do it )
The White Lady Cocktail ( History & How to do it )
White Lady is a classic cocktail that is made with gin, Cointreau or Triple Sec, fresh lemon juice and an optional egg white (if you like it). It belongs to the sidecar family, made with gin instead of brandy. This cocktail can sometimes include other ingredients such as sugar, cream, or crème deme menthe.
It is mostly served in a standard Martini Glass but when you add an egg white, then it is preferred in a coupe glass because the silky foam is just more pleasant.
" White Lady , Delilah , or Chelsea Side-Car ? "
The History behind it
Like most classic cocktails, a lot of different people claim to have created it.
Originally it was believed to be created by a famous bartender known as “ Harry McElhone “. He used to work at London’s Ciro Club in 1919. The ingredients he used at the time were equal volume of white crème de menthe, triple sec and lemon juice. Then when we owned his own bar ( Harry’s New York Bar ) in Paris 4 years later, he adapted the recipe and swapped the crème de menthe with gin.
A couple of honorary mentions are : 1) Harry Craddock, of the American Bar at The Savoy in London. He published the recipe in his cocktail book in 1930 and increased the volume of gin which made it drier to the taste. 2) Peter Dorelli, legendary former manager of the American Bar, what he did was adding the dash of egg white to bind the drink together and give it that smooth and silky finish.
It is such an amazing drink !
Here’s the equipment we used to do it
Ingredients
40 ml ( 1.33 oz ) Gin
30 ml ( 1 oz ) Triple Sec
1/2 Fresh Egg White
Half Lemon Squeezed
Garnish : Orange Peel Twist
How to do it
- Pre Chill the Circletini Glass
- Add the Gin, Triple Sec, Half Lemon Squeeze & Half Fresh Egg white into the Beauty Shaker
- Dry Shake ( Shake without ice ) the ingredients to create a thick foam
- Then add ice to the shaker and shake again to chill
- Proceed to strain the mix with the Rigid Handle Hawthorne strainer into the Circletini glass
- Garnish with an orange peel twist
Cheers !
Tip : If you are not using egg white, you can skip the dry shake and shake the ingredients with ice the first time.
