Pink Lady

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (49 ratings)

Serve in a

Coupe glass

Garnish:

Luxardo Maraschino cherry

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain back into shaker. DRY SHAKE (without ice) and fine strain into chilled glass.

1 1/2 fl oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
1/2 fl oz Applejack brandy bottled-in-bond (50% alc./vol)
3/4 fl oz Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
5/12 fl oz Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water, 65.0°Brix)
1/6 fl oz Grenadine/pomegranate syrup (2:1)
1/2 fl oz Pasteurised egg white or Aquafaba (chickpea water) or 3 dashes Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foamer
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Hazardous ingredients

Pasteurised egg white is potentially hazardous to those with allergy or intolerance.

AKA:

The Secret Cocktail or the Pink Shimmy

Review:

A generous measure of gin and high-proof applejack provide spirituous spice which, along with lemon juice sourness, ensures that this cocktail is neither sweet nor weak. Indeed, this is a very tasty sour. So tasty, that to spare this Lady's blushes, our friend Ted "Dr Cocktail" Haigh would prefer you refer to it as "The Secret Cocktail."

Variant:

With the addition of half a shot apple brandy.

History:

The first known reference to the Pink Lady is in Jacques Straub's 1913 Manual of Mixed Drinks.
Jacques Straub's 1913 Manual of Mixed Drinks.

PINK LADY COCKTAIL
½ Jigger Lime Juice.
½ Jigger Gin.
½ Jigger Apple Jack.
5 Dashes Grenadine.
Shake well.

Jacques Straub, 1913

Later recipes such as the one in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book omit the hard to obtain applejack (at least for UK bartenders) and in its place add egg white to produce an all-round fluffy affair.

The cocktail is probably named in honour of the American actress Hazel Dawn (1890-1988) who played "The Pink Lady" lead role in the 1911 Broadway hit musical comedy, The Pink Lady by Ivan Caryll. She rose to fame playing this role and subsequently appeared in 15 feature films but always retained The Pink Lady nickname.

The cocktail's creator is not recorded but it is sometimes attributed to the American actress and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe (1859-1950).

Nutrition:

One serving of Pink Lady contains 199 calories.

Alcohol content:

  • 1.5 standard drinks
  • 18.26% alc./vol. (36.52° proof)
  • 21 grams of pure alcohol
Difford's Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Buy direct from
the_whisky_exchange store logo
£ -.--

Makes a minimum of ... cocktails
Just £ -.-- per cocktail*

* This list may not include all required ingredients.
Price per cocktail is an estimate based on the cost of making one cocktail with the available ingredients shown above and does not include any postage charges.
Buy direct from Difford’s Guide
Difford's Easy Jigger
£8.72 £8.72 exc VAT
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