August 25, 2015

Clover Clubs



It was a dark and stormy night - well Copenhagen nights are never completely dark in the middle of June and the storm was more of a slight drizzle.

But that was the night five years ago I discovered classic cocktails on a tour of Copenhagen bars. One of them impressed me so much that it to this day is my all time favourite gin cocktail.

So when Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut asked us to channel our inner Paul Clarke for the 100th Mixology Monday my choice was easy.

Clarke, who started MxMo, has a post about the Clover Club. This was one of the text I read the day after my epiphany to figure out how this amazingly soft, pretty and strong drink was made.

I’ve made it many times since, and I’ve even twisted it a bit. Rhubarb Club is a very fine homage to this classic and today I give you the classic and another fine twist.

I encountered my first Clover Club in the downstairs bar at Ruby’s in Copenhagen. On a busy Friday night with a lot of alpha males roaming the room asking for attention, appreciation, respect, loans and other completely irrelevant stuff in a bar.

In the midst of all that the bartender took time out to mix a Clover Club for my friend and I, and he told us the story of how this cocktail was the signature cocktail in a gentlemans club in Philadelphia at the start of the 20th century. We chuckled at the thought of all these doctors, lawyers, politicians and captains of industry sitting around with their pink, frothy cocktails.

The bartender made our Clover Clubs with raspberries and frankly I have always made it that way - except for the occasional Rhubarb Club - but many recipes call for grenadine instead. My first choice will always be raspberries, they are my favourite berry and about the only thing thriving in my small, sandy garden.

Clover Club

  • 6 cl gin - I used Tanqueray
  • 1,5 cl fresh strained lemon juice
  • 1 table spoon homemade raspberry syrup (I bring about 2 dl of berries to the boil with 0,5 cl sugar and 0,5 cl water. When the mixture is cooled of I strain, pressing as much liquid from the berries as possible and use the solids for pastry)
  • 1 egg white

Add everything to a shaker. Shake hard without ice for a good minute, then add ice and shake again for at least 30 seconds. Strain into cocktail coupe and garnish with fresh raspberries - i threaded them unto a sprig of lavender.

Currant Club

  • 6 cl gin - I used Hernö Juniper Cask gin
  • 1,5 cl fresh strained red grapefruit juice
  • 1 table spoon homemade red currant syrup made the same way ans the raspberry syrup
  • 1 egg white.

As with the classic Clover Club start with a dry shake and then add ice. I strained it into an old fashioned glass and garnished with a since slice of grape floating on the foam of the drink with a small cluster of currants using it as a surf board.