How to Make a White Lady Cocktail | TT - London
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White Lady

By Stephen Thompson

The White Lady is a citrus-led cocktail made using fresh lemon juice, with herbaceous notes from the gin and triple sec.

Ingredients

37.5ml Gin

12.5ml Triple Sec

25ml Lemon Juice

12.5ml Sugar Syrup

1 Egg White

Lemon Twist for Garnish

Times:

Prep: 2 Minutes

Make: 30 Seconds

Total: 2 Minutes and 30 Seconds

Calories:

141 calories

Allergens:

Contains eggs.

Servings:

Serves 1

Method

Chill a martini glass/coupette in the freezer or fill it with ice.

Take your Boston glass or small tin and crack your egg, carefully passing the contents from one half of the shell to the other to separate the egg, over your shaker, adding the white to the shaker and discarding the yolk. If any yolk or shell goes into your shaker, discard and try again.

Using your jigger to measure, add the gin, triple sec and sugar syrup to the shaker.

Using your Mexican elbow and a jigger to measure, squeeze 25ml of lemon juice and add it to the shaker.

Fill your shaker with cubed ice and seal using your Boston tin or glass, before shaking vigorously for 10-15 seconds or until your tin is very cold.

Using your Hawthorne strainer, strain your cocktail from one half of the shaker to the other and discard the left over ice.

Re-seal your shaker and shake your cocktail for a further 5-10 seconds without any ice to aerate the egg-white.

Remove your glass from the freezer or empty it of ice if necessary.

Using your fine strainer, strain your cocktail into your chilled martini glass or coupette.

Garnish with a thin lemon twist.

Serve and enjoy!”

History

Like all good classics the invention of the White Lady is heavily disputed.

Harry MacElhorne, working in the 1920’s made a drink with equal parts creme de menthe, lemon juice, triple sec. The former was later replaced with gin, and the ratios adjusted. Harry Craddock also claims to have invented the cocktail, and it does appear in The Savoy Cocktail book. We’ll never really know but the drink has now evolved into a very popular classic.

According to Joe Gilmore, once head bartender at the Savoy’s American Bar, this was one of Laurel and Hardy’s favourite drinks. It’s also thought that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda drank these at the Savoy and the drink was named for her and her platinum blonde hair.