A simple, silky and delicious gin-laced classic with a sour finish.
My White Lady recipe is authentic to the proportions in Harry Craddock's 1930 recipe...
This drink is requested by my partner regularly and made to spec as above - sometimes a little less rich syrup though.
And so today I made a 2x brew for us but ran out of lemon at 30-35ml so completed the 45 ml with 10-15ml of freshly squeezed lime. The result - I will definitely will do this again- the expressed lemon zest and rub gave the sweet fragrance and the little bit of lime brought a sharpness to the lemon. It's now my go-to formula. Cor Blimey it's a limey white lady.
That's really funny - I just did the exact same thing - running out of fresh lemon and adding a bit of fresh lime. It makes a more compelling cocktail!
Hi Simon - Just for your interest. The earliest 'egg white' version of the White Lady that I've found was in the 1938 Cocktails as served in the Cafe-Bar Martinique (NYC). I'm still looking for an older reference and if you know of one (or if anyone does) please let me know: 1 egg white, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 jigger Gin, 1 dash Cointreau
Maybe it was they wrote it, but my palate agrees with that anonymous downvoted commenter - I couldn’t finish this before the acidity began burning. Tried topping with soda water which helped for half the remainder, but still had to quit...not for me!
@Jesse M I made it with aquafaba, but I felt it was really nice. It was balanced, with tiny wisps of orange, nice lemon sourness (not pure tartness) and of course, the botanicals of the gin (the citrus parts of the gin felt more highlighted). I even got a decent (if still weaker) foam with the egg white.
FWIW, I went almost to the recipe because I had a good sized martini glass to fill. 1.75oz Gin, 1oz homemade triple sec, 1 oz lemon, and the rest as advertised.
This is the cocktail for the mall rat GenXer. I've been there. For me this was the adult, lemon version of the mall Orange Julius stand. The taste and the texture are right there.