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In the realm of cocktails, it doesn’t get pinker than the Pink Lady. This classic, gin-based cocktail’s bright pink color, frothy foam head, and sweet-tart flavor profile was enjoyed by men and women alike until after Prohibition, when cocktail critics (men) decided it was to “girly” for guys.
Sweet cocktails were especially popular during Prohibition because they better masked the taste of the poor-quality, “bathtub” gin. The egg white, added during this time, further smoothed out the drink.
The cocktail gets its pinkness and sweetness from grenadine (pomegranate syrup), but note that big brands are Rose’s are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. It’s an artificial taste.
You can buy a smaller craft brand, or easily make your own by reducing pomegranate juice. Here’s the recipe.
Below:
> The Pink Lady recipe.
> The history of the Pink Lady cocktail.
Elsewhere on The Nibble:
> Make your own grenadine.
> The year’s 100+ cocktail and spirit holidays.
> The year’s 14 gin holidays.
> The history of gin.
> The history of Ginuary.
> The different types (expressions) of gin.
> The year’s 14 gin holidays.
> What is applejack, and how does it differ from apple brandy?
> The history of Valentine’s Day.
RECIPE: PINK LADY COCKTAIL
As with all recipes, there are variations, but use gin, grenadine, and egg white, shaken and strained into a coupe glass. This typical 20th-century version was standardized with applejack.
It balances London Dry gin with crisp apple brandy with bright, and the tartness of freshly squeezed lemon juice balanced by sweet grenadine. The egg white softens the drink’s flavors and texture.
The classic garnish is a maraschino cherry, but unless you really like them or can find/make a good brandied cherry, consider a cocktail pick of raspberries or simply sprinkle pomegranate arils over the foam.
If you’re concerned about consuming raw egg whites, look for pasteurized eggs.
Ingredients Per Drink
1-1/2 ounces London Dry gin
1/2 ounce applejack (substitute apple brandy*
3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 ounce grenadine
1 egg white
Garnish: maraschino or brandied cherry
Alternate garnish: raspberry pick, pomegranate arils
Preparation
1. COMBINE all ingredients except the garnish in a shaker and vigorously dry-shake, i.e. without ice. This ensures that the egg white fully combines with the other ingredients.
2. ADD ice and shake again until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
3. GARNISH and serve.
THE HISTORY OF THE PINK LADY
Before the Pink Lady arrived on the scene (arguably in 1911), there were two antecedents.
The Gin Sour. The “sour” family of drinks became popular in the 1850s, a combination of a spirit, citrus, juice, and sugar or simple syrup (the history of simple syrup).
The first known written recipe for a Gin Sour was published in Gerry Thomas’s 1862 book, How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion.
The Clover Club. It was invented in the late 1800s, a bartender at the Clover Club, a Philadelphia social club, swapped the plain simple syrup of the Gin Sour for raspberry syrup, and added an egg white to create a foamy top.
The syrup gave the drink a pink-orange hue and added fruity flavor to the sweetness. The cocktail appears in an 1887 club handbook.
The Pink Lady. The Pink Lady is a pomegranate version of the Clover Club, swapping the raspberry syrup for pomegranate syrup, a.k.a. grenadine.
The drink appeared at the time of a 1911 Broadway musical The Pink Lady, It is believed that it was named specifically for its star, Hazel Dawn, who was the Pink Lady of the title.
While we don’t know who created it, versions of the recipe first appear in print in 1913,in Straub’s Manual of Mixed Drinks by Jacques Straub (1913). A bit later, it can be found in Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo R. Ensslin (1916).
These publications indicate that the Pink Lady was taking hold.
The recipes included London Dry gin and applejack in equal parts, along with lime juice and dashes of grenadine. But no egg white.
The egg white took hold within a few years, believed to have been added around 1920 during Prohibition (1920–1933), to mask the bad taste of bathtub gin.
A creamier version of the Pink Lady that has been around at least since the 1920s replaced the egg white with sweet cream. This version is called the Pink Shimmy, said to be created at the Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans by Armond Schroeder, an assistant manager. (Perhaps he also made the club’s bathtub gin?)
There are also versions that include egg white along with cream.
As with any recipe, there were variations. The one featured in Harry Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, featuring 750 recipes from the American Bar at London’s Savoy Hotel, omitted the applejack (it was difficult to source in the U.K. at the time) but used citrus juice, grenadine, and the egg white.
Occasionally the Pink Lady’s invention is attributed to the interior designer and society figure Elsie de Wolfe (1865–1950). However, de Wolfe’s recipe is is said to have contained gin, pink grapefruit juice instead of lemon juice, and Cointreau orange liqueur.
Post Prohibition
After the end of Prohibition (1933), there was no longer need for recipes that could covered up the taste of bad spirits. By 1939, the Pink Lady had fallen out of favor with critics (who were almost exclusively men). It appeared in Esquire magazine’s list of the “10 Best and Worst Cocktails of 1934” (see the list here).
Even if it tasted good and was made of manly ingredients (gin, applejack), what man wanted to be seen holding a frothy pink drink? The Pink Lady had acquired the reputation of “female” or “girly.”
The Pink Lady Today
Beginning with the craft cocktail movement in in the early 2000s, bartenders “rediscovered” the Pink Lady and other retro cocktails†.
If it hasn’t become a retro A-lister like the Manhattan, Negroni, Old-Fashioned, and Sidecar, it has at least made it onto the B-list. Some revived cocktails on the C-list, which were never even popular in their original era, also have ridden the revival wave.
Of course, modern mixologists continue to orchestrate changes when they dust off these cocktails. With the Pink Lady, we’ve seen newer recipes that have a lot more gin, add honey syrup in addition to the grenadine, and we even found a Salted Pink Lady. (How about a Chocolate Pink Lady?)
So try the original 20th-century recipe above, and if you have an idea of how to tweak it, go for it! But remember: Chocolate was our idea.
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