Pink Lady
A Pink Lady is 45ml of gin, 15ml of apple brandy, 20ml of fresh lemon juice, 15ml of grenadine and 15ml of egg white, dry shaken, shaken hard with ice and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a cherry. About 2.4 UK units. The egg white is raw, so leave it out for anyone allergic to egg. Who made it first is unknown. The name is often linked to The Pink Lady, a Broadway musical of 1911, and by Prohibition the drink was widely known. The plainest recipe is gin, grenadine and egg white, which is how the Café Royal Cocktail Book gave it in 1937. Lemon is a common addition, and the apple brandy in ours adds body. Made with real pomegranate grenadine, it tastes tart before it is sweet, with the apple brandy under the gin and a white foam over a pink drink.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
45ml
A London Dry at 40% ABV with clear juniper, which keeps the drink dry and shaped under the fruit and the foam.
15ml
Calvados or applejack at 40% ABV. At 15ml it adds body and a dry apple note under the gin without taking over. Leave it out and you have a thinner, simpler drink.
15ml
Pomegranate juice and sugar, with no alcohol. It colours and sweetens the drink; a synthetic syrup adds colour and sugar and nothing else.
15ml
About half a white. It builds the foam and softens the lemon; without it the drink becomes a pink gin sour, sharper and without the silk. Raw. Following the FSA, British Lion-mark eggs are safe raw, including for vulnerable groups and in pregnancy; pasteurised carton white is the alternative. Eating out, where the mark cannot be checked, the FSA advises vulnerable people to have their eggs thoroughly cooked. Contains egg: leave it out, or use aquafaba, for anyone allergic.
Instructions
Squeeze the lemon juice the same day.
Chill a coupe.
Add the gin, calvados, lemon juice, grenadine and egg white to a shaker.
Dry shake without ice for 10 to 15 seconds.
Add cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe and let the foam settle.
Garnish with a cherry.
Our version
Recipes vary. The Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937 gives gin, grenadine and egg white alone. Ours adds 20ml of lemon, as many recipes do, and 15ml of apple brandy for body, with the egg white measured at 15ml.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use real grenadine, made from pomegranate juice and sugar. Most bright red supermarket syrups are coloured sugar with no fruit in them, and in a pale drink built on gin and egg white that shows at once. Shake twice. First without ice, for 10 to 15 seconds, to whip the egg white; then with ice, hard, for 10 to 12 seconds, to chill the drink and set the foam. In the other order the head comes out thin. Measure the egg white at 15ml, about half a white; a whole one makes a foam so thick it mutes the lemon. Use British Lion eggs, which the Food Standards Agency advises can be eaten raw.
Behind the Pink Lady
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The origin is unknown. The interior designer Elsie de Wolfe is sometimes credited, though the recipe tied to her differs from the usual one. The name is often said to come from The Pink Lady, a Broadway musical of 1911, or from its star, Hazel Dawn.
By Prohibition it was widely known. The Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937 gives it as gin, grenadine and egg white alone. Lemon became the usual addition, and some versions added cream.
The Reputation
From the 1930s the drink was written about as a woman’s order, for its name and its colour. Male critics dismissed it on those grounds, and Esquire eventually put it on a list of the ten worst cocktails.
Made with fresh lemon and real grenadine, it is a dry, tart sour that happens to be pink.
The Split Base
Gin and apple brandy share the base. The gin brings juniper and keeps the drink dry; 15ml of calvados or applejack adds body and an apple note underneath.
The apple brandy is the link to the Jack Rose, which is applejack, lemon and grenadine with no gin and no egg. The Clover Club, the other relation, swaps the grenadine for raspberry syrup and leaves out the apple.
The Foam
Egg white whips best at room temperature, so the first shake goes without ice and the second, with ice, chills the drink and sets the foam. Let it settle for half a minute before serving, so the foam sits as a clean white layer on the pink.
Three Relations Compared
The Pink Lady beside the Clover Club and the Jack Rose
Pink Lady (ours)
- Base
- 45ml gin, 15ml apple brandy
- Citrus
- 20ml lemon
- Sweetener
- 15ml grenadine
- Egg white
- 15ml
- UK units
- About 2.4
Clover Club
- Base
- 45ml London Dry gin
- Citrus
- 15ml lemon
- Sweetener
- 15ml raspberry syrup
- Egg white
- 15ml
- UK units
- About 1.8
Jack Rose
- Base
- 60ml applejack
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lemon
- Sweetener
- 22.5ml grenadine
- Egg white
- None
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Base | Citrus | Sweetener | Egg white | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pink Lady (ours) | 45ml gin, 15ml apple brandy | 20ml lemon | 15ml grenadine | 15ml | About 2.4 |
| Clover Club | 45ml London Dry gin | 15ml lemon | 15ml raspberry syrup | 15ml | About 1.8 |
| Jack Rose | 60ml applejack | 22.5ml lemon | 22.5ml grenadine | None | About 2.4 |
How to Serve It
Up, in a chilled coupe, with a single cherry. It sits before dinner, where a Clover Club would.
For raspberry in place of grenadine, make a Clover Club; for apple brandy alone with lemon and grenadine, a Jack Rose.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. GB law requires juniper to lead the taste and sets a 37.5% ABV floor; the usual bottle is 40%. The law grades it by how the flavour gets in, from plain gin through distilled gin to London gin, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Pink Lady?
Where does the Pink Lady come from?
Is it a pink Clover Club?
Why apple brandy?
Does the grenadine have to be real?
Can I make a Pink Lady without egg white?
How strong is a Pink Lady?
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Clover Club
A Clover Club is 45ml of London Dry gin, 15ml of fresh lemon juice, 15ml of raspberry syrup and 15ml of egg white, dry shaken, shaken again hard with ice and double strained into a chilled coupe, with three raspberries on a pick. About 1.8 UK units. The egg white is raw, so leave it out for anyone allergic to egg. Those are the IBA’s measures, except the egg white: the IBA asks for a few drops, and 15ml, about half a white, gives the full foam this method builds. The drink takes its name from the Clover Club, a Philadelphia club of journalists, lawyers and businessmen founded in the 1880s, and it was widely ordered before Prohibition. It fell out of fashion for most of the twentieth century and came back with the cocktail revival; Julie Reiner named her Brooklyn bar after it in 2008. Made with real raspberry syrup it is tart first and fruity second, with the foam softening both.
Jack Rose
A Jack Rose is 60ml applejack, 22.5ml fresh lemon juice and 22.5ml grenadine, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. About 2.4 UK units with a 40% applejack, or 3.0 with a bonded apple brandy at 50%. The lemon and grenadine are poured in equal measure, and the grenadine is why the drink looks and tastes as it does. Made from real pomegranate, it brings tart red fruit as well as sugar, and turns the glass pink. The drink was in print by 1905, when the National Police Gazette credited a New Jersey bartender, Frank J. May. The name most likely joins its two parts: applejack, and the rose colour from the grenadine. Hemingway put one in Jake Barnes’s hand at the Hôtel de Crillon in The Sun Also Rises.
White Lady
A White Lady is 40ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of Cointreau and 20ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. About 2.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and there is no egg white in them. The name is older than the recipe. Harry MacElhone gave it in 1919, at Ciro’s Club in London, to a drink of brandy, crème de menthe and Cointreau. The gin, Cointreau and lemon version is credited to his rebuild at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in 1929, though that is disputed, and The Savoy Cocktail Book printed it in 1930, also without egg. Egg white came later: the earliest recipe found with it is in a newspaper of 1936. It makes a softer, foamed drink, given here as a variation. The plain version is sharp and dry, the gin in front and the orange behind it.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026