White Lady Cocktail

Anyone looking for classic and simple cocktails with gin will inevitably come across the White Lady. Basically, the White Lady cocktail is the gin-based representative of the sours category. Almost every spirit has a legendary sour. For example, whiskey sours, rum-based daiquiris, pisco sours or caipirinha with cacahca, and the White Lady cocktail also belongs to this family. Even if its sugar source is a triple sec liqueur. This is the only point in which the White Lady differs from its siblings with rum, pisco or whiskey, although it does have this in common with its closest relative, the Side Car.

The White Lady cocktail originated in Europe in the 1920s. Almost all documents on the classic with gin assume that Harry MacELhone, operator of Harry's New York in Paris, invented the cocktail. Reference is made to one of his drinks from 1920. This also contains lemon juice and triple sec as well as crème de menthe. It is often claimed that Harry tinkered with the recipe over the following years until the now familiar mixture of gin, triple sec and lemon juice was finally created. However, there is evidence that Harry Craddock, bar manager of the Savoy Bar in London, was the first to publish the legendary recipe in his cocktail book in 1930.

White Lady recipe

6 cl gin

3 cl fresh lemon juice

2 cl orange liqueur (e.g. Cointreau)

1 cl sugar

Shake all ingredients vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an optional lemon zest.