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A pale pink Clover Club in a coupe glass with a frothy top and raspberries on a pickPhoto by long zhang on Pexels
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Clover Club

Gin, lemon, raspberry and egg white, shaken to a pale pink froth — a pre-Prohibition classic.

Difficulty
medium
Prep time
6 min
Strength
18% ABV
Glassware
Coupe glass
Base
gin
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • Gin
    45ml
  • Fresh lemon juice
    20ml
  • Raspberry syrup
    15ml
  • Egg white
    15ml

Garnish: Fresh raspberries on a pick

Scale for a party

Method

  1. Add the gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup and egg white to a shaker without ice.
  2. Dry shake hard for 15 seconds to whip the egg white.
  3. Add ice and shake again for 10–15 seconds until well chilled.
  4. Double-strain into a chilled coupe glass to leave a clean, fine foam.
  5. Garnish with fresh raspberries on a cocktail pick.

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

  • Cocktail shaker

    Household swap: A jar with a very tight lid, held firmly, works for both the dry shake and the iced shake.

  • Fine strainer

    Household swap: A small kitchen tea strainer held over the glass while pouring.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

  • Instead of Raspberry Syrup

    Best substitute: Grenadine

    This is the sweet element in this drink.

    Quantity: Use slightly less, about 10ml, as grenadine is often sweeter and more pomegranate-forward

    Flavour impact: Shifts the fruit note from raspberry to pomegranate — noticeably different, but works within the same structure.

    What changes

    Expect more sweetness and less acidity. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.

    Sweetness ↑
    The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
    Acidity ↓
    Less acidity is the change people notice most and diagnose least — the drink goes flat and slightly cloying rather than obviously wrong.
    Character
    Both are tart-sweet and fruity, and you lose berry and bright, and you gain vivid and pomegranate. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
    • Add a little more of it, or a squeeze of fresh citrus, until the drink lifts again.
    Moderate confidenceA workable substitute, though it changes the signature raspberry character.Shifts the drinkBecomes a variation

Make it better

  • Double-strain through a fine strainer as well as the shaker's built-in one — it catches any ice shards and gives a cleaner foam.
  • Don't skip the dry shake; it's what turns this from a pink gin sour into the classic frothy Clover Club.
  • Use a London Dry gin — its juniper backbone keeps the drink from tasting like raspberry cordial.
  • Chill the glass in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand — a warm glass takes the edge off a well-made drink fast.
  • Use freshly squeezed citrus juice rather than bottled — the aromatic oils fade fast once juiced, so squeeze just before making the drink.

Rescue this drink

No foam on top
Dry shake harder and longer before adding ice — a weak first shake won't whip the egg white properly.
Too sweet
Add 5ml more lemon juice and reduce the raspberry syrup slightly next time.
Tastes flat or eggy
Make sure you're shaking hard enough with ice on the second shake — proper aeration and chill are what make this drink work.
The foam collapses, or there is far too much of itgeneral guidance
Collapsing usually means the dry shake was too short or came after the ice rather than before it. Too much foam is the opposite problem — an over-long dry shake with a small drink underneath. Fifteen seconds dry, then ten with ice, is the ratio to keep; if the head still runs over the glass, the drink is too small for the amount of white in it.
Texture looks split or curdledgeneral guidance
This usually happens when citrus is added too fast to dairy, or the drink sat too long before serving. Add citrus gradually while stirring next time — a split drink often can't be fully recovered once it happens.
Too sourgeneral guidance
Add a little more sweetener (simple syrup or the cocktail's usual sweetening ingredient), a small amount at a time.
Served too warmgeneral guidance
Chill the glass, ice and every ingredient ahead of time — a warm pour is the fastest way to lose a cold drink's balance. For one serving, there's no real fix beyond rebuilding it properly chilled; for a batch, keep everything refrigerated until the moment of serving and add ice last.
Over-diluted (tastes watery)general guidance
Likely shaken too long, or with too much ice surface area. For one serving there's no fixing it after the fact — rebuild with fewer, larger ice cubes and a shorter shake. Planning a batch? Shorten the ice-contact time across the whole round, not just this glass.
Under-diluted (tastes harsh or too concentrated)general guidance
For one serving, stir in a few drops of chilled water to open it up. For a batch, extend the shake time slightly on the next round.
No cocktail shakergeneral guidance
A jar with a very tight lid, held firmly, works for both the dry shake and the iced shake.

Make ahead & storage

Make to order

Make this one to order — the foam has to be shaken fresh. You can still measure and group the ingredients in advance, which is most of the work.

Fresh lemon juice:
Fresh citrus loses its aroma within hours and turns dull. Squeeze it on the day.
Egg white:
The foam is built by the shake and cannot be made in advance.

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

off-dry, sharp, medium — a sour-structured drink served straight up, no ice.

Off-dry

Dry → Sweet

Sweetened enough to take the edge off without reading as a sweet drink.

What drives it: Raspberry syrup — carries the most sugar into the glass.

Sharp

Soft → Sharp

Properly sharp. This is the axis the drink is built on.

What drives it: Fresh lemon juice — supplies the acidity.

Medium

Light → Rich

Medium weight: enough texture to feel like a made drink, not enough to fill you up.

What drives it: Raspberry syrup — adds most of the weight.

Moderate

Delicate → Bold

Moderate: assertive enough to hold its own, mild enough for a second.

What drives it: Gin — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

  • Citrus peelLeads

    From Gin, Fresh lemon juice

  • Juniper and botanicalsLeads

    From Gin

  • Berry

    From Raspberry syrup

Every aroma here comes from the liquid itself; nothing is layered on top.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — each with the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

  • It's too sweet

    Likely cause
    Raspberry syrup is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
    What to change
    Cut raspberry syrup by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a squeeze of citrus is faster than starting again.
    What that does
    The drink will read sharper as well as less sweet, because the acid stops being balanced. That is usually the intention, but it is a bigger change than it sounds.

  • It's too sour

    Likely cause
    Fresh lemon juice varies more than any other ingredient in the drink. Limes differ by weeks of ripeness, and a sharp one can be half again as acidic as a mild one at the same measure.
    What to change
    Add sweetener a few millilitres at a time rather than diluting — you are correcting a ratio, not a concentration.
    What that does
    Sourness recedes and the drink gains a little weight. Overshoot and you will be reading the too-sweet entry above instead.

  • It tastes weak

    Likely cause
    Usually dilution rather than measurement: shaking adds water as it chills, and wet or small ice adds far more of it than cold, large ice does.
    What to change
    Use larger, colder ice and work faster. Adding more spirit fixes the symptom and unbalances everything else.
    What that does
    The drink gains definition without gaining sugar. It will also read as slightly sharper, which is what 'more presence' usually means in practice.

  • It's watery

    Likely cause
    Shaking adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
    What to change
    Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
    What that does
    More flavour concentration at the same temperature. Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — this is a target, not a direction.

  • It doesn't smell of anything

    Likely cause
    This drink's aroma comes from citrus peel and juniper and botanicals, carried in the liquid. Serving it too cold suppresses that: volatile compounds do not leave a very cold drink.
    What to change
    Let it sit for a minute before drinking, and use a glass that narrows towards the rim to concentrate what does escape.
    What that does
    More of the aroma escapes and the drink reads as more intense. The cost is temperature: a drink left to warm also dilutes faster, so this is a trade against how long it stays right.

  • It tastes one-dimensional

    Likely cause
    With 4 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a sour-structured drink is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
    What to change
    Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: fresh citrus rather than bottled, a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
    What that does
    More going on at the same strength and sweetness. Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one.

Taste profile

Sweetness
2/5
Sourness
3/5
Bitterness
0/5
Strength
2/5
Fruitiness
3/5
Freshness
2/5
Creaminess
2/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate onlyRaspberry syrup sweetness and egg white size vary by brand and egg.
Calories
143 kcal
Sugar
13 g
Carbohydrates
14 g
Alcohol units (UK)
1.8
US standard drinks
1.01
ABV
18%
Serving size
100 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~99 kcal from alcohol, ~44 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 107–179 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Based on 45ml gin at 40% ABV, 15ml raspberry syrup, 20ml lemon juice and one small egg white.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

  • Clover Club with Muddled Raspberries

    Muddle 3–4 fresh raspberries in the shaker before adding the other ingredients for a chunkier, more natural fruit flavour.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A shaken build: a sour-structured gin-based drink, served straight up, no ice — foamed in the mouth.

Sour-structured

Something sour and something sweet held in balance over a base — the structure behind the whole sour family and everything descended from it.

  • Base

    Gin

    Spirit in the largest measure — read as the base.

  • Sour element

    Fresh lemon juice

    A short, sharp measure — recorded acidity 5/5, and nothing sharper is poured short, so this is the sour element.

  • Sweet element

    Raspberry syrup

    A syrup — its whole job in the drink is to sweeten and to add a little body along with it.

  • Foaming agent

    Egg white

    Egg builds foam rather than richness — it changes the texture, not the flavour.

Drinks built this way are collected as the Sour family.

4 components' roles areworked out from the ingredient's category and recorded taste attributes rather than set by hand — the reasoning is shown above so you can disagree with it.

Technique

shaken

Ice is thrown against the liquid and against itself, chipping fragments off and driving air through the mix. Chilling, dilution and aeration all happen at once and cannot be separated.

A lighter, briefly frothy body and a cloudy appearance that settles as it stands. The aeration blunts alcoholic heat, which is why a shaken drink tastes softer than a stirred one of the same strength.

What it ruins: Clarity, and any carbonation. A shaken spirits-only drink arrives cloudy with ice shards floating in it, and shaking anything fizzy is the one rule with no exceptions.

Everything about shaking →How the technique works →

Dilution

During mixing, then strained

Water from ice typically makes up around 30% of the finished drink for a shaken build (commonly 25–35%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Straight up, no ice

Coupe glass · 100ml

Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 100ml is the right size for it.

Texture and aroma

Foamed

A foaming agent builds a dense head that softens the first sip and carries aroma up to the nose.

No dedicated aromatic component — what you smell is the spirit itself, which is a deliberate choice in a drink this spare.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

Origin of the Clover Club

American pre-Prohibition classic, named after a Philadelphia gentlemen's club.

Family

Sour

2 parts spirit · 1 part citrus · 1 part sweetener — shaken, strained, served up or over ice.

1800s–1919Other pre-prohibition drinks →

On drinks history

Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.

History and culture →

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Related tools

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

Recipe confidence

Well-documented historic recipe with consistent modern proportions.

High confidence