Pink lady (cocktail)

Pink Lady

Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Gin
Served	1
Standard garnish	cherry
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
Commonly used ingredients	1.5 oz. gin 4 dashes grenadine 1 egg white
Preparation	Shake ingredients very well with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

The Pink Lady is a classic gin-based cocktail with a long history. Its pink color is due to adding grenadine.

Basic recipe and variations

The exact ingredients for the pink lady vary, but all variations have the use of gin, grenadine and egg white in common.^[1] In its most basic form the pink lady consists of just these three ingredients. According to the Royal Cafe Cocktail Book of 1937, it is made with a glass of gin, a tablespoon of grenadine and the white of one egg, shaken and strained into a glass.^[2]

Often lemon juice is added to the basic form as well and in that case the Pink Lady is identical to another cocktail called Clover Club. Some authors argue that the "real" or "original" pink lady differs from the Clover Club by adding applejack to mix, which provides the Pink Lady with its own distinct flavour.^[3][4]

Another creamier version of the Pink Lady that has been around at least since the 1920s adds sweet cream to the basic form. In New Orleans this version was also known as Pink Shimmy. In some recipes the cream is not added to the basic form but simply replaces the egg white and sometimes lemon juice is added as well.^[5]

Usually the ingredients for any of the versions are shaken over ice and after straining it into a glass the cocktail might be garnished with a cherry.^[6]

History

The exact origin of the Pink Lady is not known for sure. Occasionally its invention is attributed to the interior architect and prominent society figure Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950), but the recipe associated with her nevertheless clearly differs from the common recipes for the Pink Lady.^[7] The name of the cocktail itself is sometimes said to be taken from the 1911 Broadway musical by Ivan Caryll of the same name.^[8] During the prohibition era (1920-1933) the cocktail was already widely known. In those years it was a popular drink at the Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans, where it was offered under the name Pink Shimmy as well. Its recipe was due to Armond Schroeder an assistant manager at the club.^[9] The popularity of the Pink Lady might partially be explained by the often bad quality of pure Gin during the prohibition era. Due to that there was a need to add additional flavours to compensate for the Gin's bad taste.^[10]

Latest in the 1930s the Pink Lady started to acquire the image of a typical "female" or "girly" drink. This was due to its name and its sweet creamy flavour usually associated with a woman's taste in publications like Esquire's Handbook for Hosts (1949). It is said of the Hollywood star and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, that she used to drink a Pink Lady before a meal.^[11][12] Subsequently the cocktail fell out of favour with male cocktail critics, who were put off by its alleged "female" nature.^[13] The writer and bartender Jack Townsend speculated in his publication The Bartender's Book (1951) that the very non-threatening appearance of the Pink Lady may have appealed to women who did not have much experience with alcohol.^[4] At one point the Pink Lady ended up on Esquire's list of the ten worst cocktails.^[10]

Notes

1. ↑ For gin, grenadine, egg white, see Halley, Tarling/Carter.
   For gin, grenadine, egg white, lemon juice, see Calabrese.
   For gin, grenadine, egg white, lemon juice, applejack, see Giglio/Fink, Naigh, Felten.
   For gin, grenadine, egg white, cream, see Widmer, Scheib Chirico.
   For gin, grenadine, egg white, lemon juice, cream, see White, Chirico
   For gin, grenadine, cream, see Chirico, Randall.
   
2. ↑ Tarling/Carter, Halley
3. ↑ Felten, Giglio/Fink, Naigh
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Change in Fortune. The Cocktail Chronicles 2006-3-22 (retrieved 2011-9-15)
5. ↑ Widmer, Scheib, Chirico, White, Randall
6. ↑ Calabrese, Giglio/Fink, Chirico, White
7. ↑ Elsie de Wolfe's concoction, also called Lady Mendl Cocktail, is gin based as well but adds grapefruit juice and Cointreau (see Fehrman/Fehrman)
8. ↑ Calabrese, White
9. ↑ Scheib
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chirico
11. ↑ Eric Felten: This Lady Is Tart in Taste. Wall Street Journal, 21. March 2007
12. ↑ Felten, Randall
13. ↑ Felten

References

• Eric Felten: How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well. Agate Publishing 2007, ISBN 978-1-57284-089-8, pp. 120–123
• Salvatore Calabrese: Complete Home Bartender's Guide: 780 Recipes for the Perfect Drink. Sterling Publishing Company 2002, ISBN 978-0-8069-8511-4, p. 61
• Mary Lou Widmer: New Orleans in the Twenties. Pelican Publishing Company 1993, ISBN 978-0-88289-933-6, p. 132
• Daniel R. White: The Classic Cocktails Book. Andrews McMeel Publishing 1998, ISBN 978-0-8362-6796-9, p. 51
• Rob Chirico: Field Guide to Cocktails: How to Identify and Prepare Virtually Every Mixed Drink at the Bar. Quirk Books 2005, ISBN 978-1-59474-063-3, pp. 208–210
• Ted Naigh: Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Quarry Books, ISBN 978-1-59253-561-3, pp. 251–252
• Anthony Giglio, Ben Fink: Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide. John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-39065-8, p. 89
• Ned Halley: Wordsworth Dictionary of Drink. Wordsworth Editions 2005, ISBN 1-84022-302-2, p. 461
• W. J. Tarling, Frederick Carter: The Cafe Royal Cocktail Book. Pall Mall Ltd., Coronation Edition, London 1937, p. 154
• Cherie Fehrman, Kenneth R. Fehrman: Interior Design Innovators 1910-1960. Fehrmann Books 2009, ISBN 978-0-9842001-0-8, p. 15
• Flora K. Scheib: History of the Southern Yacht Club. Pelican Publishing 1986, ISBN 1-56554-537-0, p. 170
• Jessy Randall: "Girl" Drinks. In: Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, Ian R. Tyrrell: Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO 2003, ISBN 1-57607-833-7, Volume 1, p. 267