Welcome to Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Clover Club!

For your red mirage.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. I was recently inspired to go back to some classic pre-Prohibition cocktails by recent events (and some Netflix binging). Let’s try a smooth, frothy, elegant classic to celebrate a good week. Time to make ourselves a Clover Club. Here’s the recipe.

Clover Club

2 oz Hendricks Gin

1 oz raspberry syrup

½ oz fresh lemon juice

1 egg white

Add gin, syrup, lemon, and egg white to a cocktail shaker without ice. Shake for at least 30 seconds. Add ice, and shake again until the shaker is frosty to the touch. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with 3 raspberries on a pick.

Raspberry Syrup

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

½ cup (1 carton) fresh raspberries

1 oz vodka

Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to low. Add the raspberries and smash into a pulp. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Strain into a bottle and add 1 oz. vodka. Keeps 1 month.

About the Clover Club

The Clover Club tastes very similar to a silky, unctuous Cosmopolitan. It might be regarded as a “girlie drink” in a modern bar. Back in the 1800s, however, it was the drink of choice among lawyers, authors, and captains of industry. The Clover Club was the house specialty of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, and a favorite with the city aristocracy. Alcohol knows no gender; a tasty drink will always be enjoyed by those in the know.

The cocktail fell out of favor after Prohibition, but has seen a revival in craft cocktail circles. Julie Reiner founded a Brooklyn bar named The Clover Club in 2008. This drink is still front and center on the menu. (Ms. Reiner is a judge on the Netflix show “Drink Masters,” which I completely binged on this week.) Balancing this cocktail takes a little work, but it’s an amazing after-dinner drink.

The egg white is truly crucial to this cocktail. I know that the prospect of drinking “raw” egg white sounds daunting, but it’s perfectly safe if you use fresh eggs. The egg white completely changes the texture and smoothness of this drink; it resembles nothing so much as a raspberry meringue pie, only better. You can omit it if you want, but the end result won’t be as satisfying.

In 1884, when this cocktail was still at its height, America was sweating its own pivotal election. Radicals had taken over the Republican Party; the “Mugwump” faction voted for Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, in protest in order to press for reform. Eventually, the hardcore Republicans realized they needed to change or become an eternal minority. It was a confused, bitter election, but it was still an American election, something that defines us as a nation. Walt Whitman wrote this at the time:

 Election Day  
  
  If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show, 

 'Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado, 

 Nor you, Yosemite—nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing, 

 Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi's stream:  

 —This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name—the still small voice vibrating—America's choosing day, 

 (The heart of it not in the chosen—the act itself the main, the quadriennial choosing,) 

 The stretch of North and South arous'd—sea-board and inland—Texas to Maine—the Prairie States—Vermont, Virginia, California, 

 The final ballot-shower from East to West—the paradox and conflict, 

 The countless snow-flakes falling—(a swordless conflict, 

 Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's: ) the peaceful choice of all, 

 Or good or ill humanity—welcoming the darker odds, the dross:  

 —Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify—while the heart pants, life glows:  

 These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships, 

 Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails. 

Let’s talk ingredients

Ingredient shot. The Clover Club vanished, like a red mirage, after this photo was taken. Matthew Hooper 

Hendricks Gin: Any solid gin will do here. If you choose a basic London Dry like Beefeater you won’t go wrong, but I think leaning hard into the floral notes here with the cucumber and rose of Hendricks is a great choice.

Lemon Juice: Always fresh. If you don’t want this drink to read as “sweet,” use a quarter ounce more juice. Balancing a cocktail is where the real art of bartending lies. Adjust to suit your own palate.

Raspberry Syrup: This homemade syrup has a bright, fresh berry flavor. Add an ounce or so of blue curacao, and you’d have a solid alternative to Chambord.

Egg White: If you have health concerns here, try using a pasteurized egg. It won’t provide the same head of foam as a fresh egg, but you’ll still have the same silky smoothness. Alternatives such as aquafaba and chemical foamers exist, but I’m not convinced they’re as tasty or safe as a real egg.

Technique: The order of operations is key here. Shake with no ice, at least 30 seconds. Then add the ice and shake until cold. It’s called a “reverse dry shake,” and it builds a great head of foam on the drink. Worth the effort.

Garnish: It doesn’t matter if it’s olives or raspberries: An even number of items garnishing your cocktail is bad luck. Use one berry, or three, but never two. We need all the luck we can get. Dip the berries in the leftover cocktail foam after you've finished drinking. They're a real treat.

Tip of the glass to Heather Cox Richardson for the history, and the poem. If you haven’t read her yet, go and do so; she’s a breath of fresh air in an overheated world.

In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender — donate to Wonkette at the link below! And if you'd like to buy some bar gear or books from Amazon, please click here! 

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