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Pink Lady

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (91)
Pink Lady image
Measurements in:
Serves:
1
Ingredients
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 Monin Grenadine Syrup
1/2 fl oz Egg white (pasteurised) or Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foamer

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

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How to make

Glassware

Serve in a Coupe glass

Prepare

  1. Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
  2. Prepare garnish of Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.

Method

  1. SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain back into shaker.
  2. DRY SHAKE (without ice).
  3. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

  1. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Pink Lady contains 199 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.5 standard drinks
  • 16.65% alc./vol. (33.31° proof)
  • 20.5 grams of pure alcohol

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

  • Egg white (pasteurised) — Eggs

Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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History

The first known reference to the Pink Lady is in 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 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 sometimes it is attributed to the American actress and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe (1859-1950).

More cocktails by Jacques Straub

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".

AKA: The Secret Cocktail or the Pink Shimmy

Variations/similar cocktails

With the addition of half a shot apple brandy.

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$2.41 per cocktail*

Makes a minimum of 16.5 cocktails.
Shipping and applicable tax calculated at checkout.


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Comments & Discussion

Chris Dimal
I used an equal split of gin and apple brandy (well I used Calvados and multiplied the quantity by 1.25 to approximate 50% ABV) and used 15ml of 1:1 home-made grenadine. Was a bit on the sour side, I think 20ml of grenadine would be the right way to go. I either way think that the split is the way to go, with much nicer fruitiness.
score: 1
Dave D. Premium Member
I agree with Calvin below. Used Bombay Sapphire and Lairds. My wife had egg whites left over from baking so I found a drink to make and I love any of the classics .
score: 1
Calvin Grant Premium Member
Indeed very tasty. Just enough apple and grenadine dancing around that lemon soured gin. Laird's bottled in bond, chicken egg white.
score: 1
Florian Ruf Premium Member
Although it sounds promising, I am not convinced of this cocktail. Maybe it was my combination of ingredients. BTW #Simon: there is a little bug in this recipe on the website. If you choose cl as measure, grenadine will be set to zero 😏.
score: 1
Paloma Difford Verified User Premium Member
Hi Florian, Simon is in a photoshoot for new cocktails being added to the site, so I'm holding the fort! Thanks for reporting the bug, that's now been fixed.
score: 1
Chris Lamb Premium Member
They drink versions of this cocktail in Louis Malle's 1974 film, "Lacombe, Lucien". Although according the dialogue they are "bad", not least of all because they seem to be missing egg white: "The best Pink Ladies I ever drank were at Rudy Hiden's bar. The best English bar in Paris."
score: 1
Landon Brown
I made this for the first time tonight using an Old Tom Gin -thinking the stone fruit notes would play well with the other ingredients - and a VSOP Calvados. The Old Tom might have a little less bite than a London Dry in this drink, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I kept Difford's ratios except I did 1/2 oz of homemade grenadine, same as Ryan. A lot better than I expected, but it sadly not very pink though lol.
score: 1
Ryan Hunter
Is there an advantage to getting so much of the sweetness from rich syrup instead of grenadine? I just simplified and used 15ml of homemade grenadine and still came out nowhere near overpowering with pomegranate (apple definitely won the "fruit battle"). Anything less (I imagine even WITH the Red40-laden store bought grenadine) is hardly even pink anyway.
score: 2
Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member
As you say, it's very dependent on your grenadine. If using homemade, I'd also use more grenadine.
score: 1
Avery Garnett
Significantly less exciting than it sounds. Good, but...not great.
score: 2
[removed]
Comment removed
Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member
I don't know when or by who the change in citrus was made but interestingly in Stanley M. Jones’ 1977 'Jones’ Complete Barguide', one of the five Pink Lady recipes says "1/2oz lemon (or lime) juice." He also says, "Just about every combination has been tried."
score: 0

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Difford’s Shop logo
$2.41 per cocktail*

Makes a minimum of 16.5 cocktails.
Shipping and applicable tax calculated at checkout.


Orders are processed by a licensed Fulproof retailer. The buy now button is added simply for convenience.

Checkout

* May not include all ingredients. Price per cocktail is an estimate based on cost of one cocktail with ingredients shown above and does not include shipping.

Visit Difford’s Shop USA

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