Clover Club

The Clover Club is one of those classics that were created pre-prohibition American (1919 – 1933). 

The history of creation

This cocktail would have been created by a young bartender Ambrose Burnside Lincoln Hoffman. He worked at the bar of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. This cocktail was made for members of a private gentleman’s club, the “Clover Club”, which brought together literary people, bankers, lawyers, business owners, and other notables of Quaker City. This group of epicureans used to meet among men in the salons of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel.

That Philadelphia’s club also had a motto and it read: “Who enters here leaves care behind, leaves sorrow behind, leaves petty envies and jealousies behind.” And probably this philosophy and, therefore, the atmosphere of the club was conducive to relaxation and the use of cocktails.

Another story told us that the original Clover Club appears as early as 1907 in the American book “The World’s Drinks” by William Boothby.

The ingredients of the Clover Club cocktail

To complete the recipe, you need 4 cl of gin, 1.5 cl of Dry Vermouth, 2.5 cl of lemon juice, 1.5 cl of raspberry syrup, and especially 1.5 cl of egg white.

The Clover Club cocktail preparation

Start the preparation by assembling all the ingredients, in the shaker, but without ice cubes, to proceed to homogenization. The process is called the Dry Shake. Then add ice cubes, shake vigorously. Pour into a cocktail glass and you can even garnish with a fresh raspberry

Variations of the Clover Club cocktail

The Royal Clover Club — grenadine syrup in place of the raspberry syrup, and egg yolk in place of the usual egg white (a relatively rare choice in the cocktail world).
The White Lady — the recipe for this cocktail does not contain raspberry syrup or dry vermouth, two ingredients that are replaced by simple sugar syrup and triple sec.

Clover Club included in the list of IBA official cocktails and classed as an All Day Cocktail.