Pink Lady Cocktail Recipe

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PREP TIME 5 min

Cocktail Type

Gin

Great for

Valentines Day

Difficulty

Easy

A pretty Pink Lady cocktail garnished with some dapper Luxardo cherries

If you love a summery gin cocktail with a silky mouthfeel and a beautiful bit of body, the Pink Lady Cocktail recipe should be the next drink you pour. Making a cocktail with egg white in the mix can seem a little daunting if you’ve never tried it before, but it’s actually really easy! We share our go-to tips here so you can shake up this retro drink like a pro.

QUICK TIPS

01

Sub 40g of aquafaba (chickpea liquid) for egg white to go vegan.

02

Luxardo cherries add a nice dramatic touch.

03

A dry London Gin in perfect for this cocktail.

INGREDIENTS

MAKE FOR

1 Person

45 Ml

1.5 Oz

1.5 Parts

15 Ml

0.5 Oz

0.5 Parts

Apple brandy
15 Ml

0.5 Oz

0.5 Parts

Fresh lemon juice
15 Ml

0.5 Oz

0.5 Parts

Grenadine
1
Small egg white (15ml)
Ice

INSTRUCTIONS

01

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker without ice, and shake for 30 seconds

02

Add ice, then shake for 30 seconds more

03

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with Maraschino or Luxardo cherries

How the recipe for the Pink Lady Cocktail came to be

The Pink Lady Cocktail recipe has been around for quite some time. In fact, it’s a Prohibition-era cocktail that was ostensibly first poured somewhere in the 1930s. Nobody has been able to pinpoint its exact origins, but it was likely first devised as a solution to temper the rather sketchy types of gin that were the norm at the time.  

The liquor industry has not always been as nicely regulated as it is today. During the Prohibition era, plenty of opportunistic DIY distillers were trying their hand at making something with a bit of kick. Usually, the result was less-than-amazing liquor that had to be dressed up quite a bit to be palatable. Cue solution-driven drinks like the Pink Lady.  

Adore a Pink Lady? Give these cocktails a go!

Once you’ve learned how to use a cocktail shaker and add egg whites to cocktails, you’ll likely be itching to try a few other drinks that follow in the silken slipstream of the recipe for the Pink Lady cocktail. When this hankering sneaks up on you, we recommend that you try:  

Clover Club Cocktail

The dreamy Clover Club cocktail is another iconic pink drink we love to pour for romantic occasions. Taking its flavour cues from the sun-kissed raspberry, it’s got a gorgeous frothy texture and goes down a treat. Fun fact – you wouldn’t think it to look at it, but the Clover Club was first developed as the signature drink of a gentlemen’s club in the early 1900s! 

White Lady Cocktail

The White Lady cocktail is a bracingly tart combination of gin, Grand Marnier Liqueur, and lemon juice. The egg whites take the edge off and balance the scales to give a smooth mouthfeel and an absolutely sublime sip. 

Classic Whiskey Sour

Learning how to pull off a classic Whiskey Sour recipe with egg white should be a rite of passage for every newbie cocktail maker. This sweet, slightly tart drink is an absolute classic with its retro foam topping, and a real game-changer in terms of mouthfeel and texture. 

When to serve up a Pink Lady recipe cocktail

In a perfect world, every day would be the perfect opportunity to whip up this Pink Lady cocktail drink recipe and lounge around whilst someone fanned you down and plied you with snacks. Alas, we mere mortals have to do things as well… To ease the burden of this realisation, here are three occasions that are tailor-made for a Pink Lady cocktail:   

  • Valentine’s Day (a perfect fit!) 
  • Hen do’s (a nice girly touch) 
  • International Day of Pink on the 12th of April (now you know it’s a thing…) 
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A Pink Lady cocktail is gently dry and a little tart, with a slight sweetness from the grenadine that gives the drink its signature colour. The taste is a little more grown-up than the cocktail's look initially suggests, so it's a nice surprise when the green tones of the gin shine through from the first sip.