Cocktail recipe
White Lady
Gin, lemon and orange liqueur in a crisp, elegant sour with a tangled family tree.
Ingredients
- 60 ml (2 oz) London dry gin
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) fresh lemon juice
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) dry orange liqueur
- Optional: 15 ml (½ oz) pasteurized egg white for a foamy house variation
- Garnish: 1 thin lemon twist
Preparation
Shake gin, lemon and orange liqueur with ice until cold, then fine-strain into a chilled coupe. For the optional egg-white version, first dry-shake all ingredients without ice, then shake again with ice and fine-strain. Express a slim lemon twist over the finished surface.
Glassware
Chilled coupe
History
The first drink called White Lady is credited to Harry MacElhone at London's Ciro's Club around 1919, but his 1922 published recipe combined brandy, crème de menthe and Cointreau—nothing like today's gin sour. The familiar gin, lemon and orange-liqueur version emerged by the late 1920s, became associated with the Savoy in London, and appeared in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. Historian accounts also discuss Victor Cabrin of Grosvenor House as a possible creator of the later formula. Egg white is a subsequent optional addition, not essential to the early gin version.
Mixology View
Two different cocktails have carried this name. Mixology serves the modern gin-based classic while acknowledging MacElhone's earlier, radically different drink. Egg white is optional and must never be implied to be historically mandatory.