White Lady
Citrusy, crisp, refined.
Gin, triple sec and lemon juice shaken and served straight up: a clean, bright sour. The orange liqueur softens the lemon's acidity without masking the gin's botanicals.
- IBA · The Unforgettables
- Aperitif
- Shaken
- Glass
- Cocktail glass
- Method
- Shaken
- Strength
- Strong
- Time
- 3 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Ice
- No ice
Ingredients
Measures for 1 serving
-
Gin
40 ml
-
Triple sec
30 ml
-
Lemon juice
20 ml
Proportions
How to make
- Chill a cocktail glass.
- Pour the gin into the shaker.
- Add the triple sec.
- Add the lemon juice.
- Fill the shaker with ice.
- Shake well.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
The story
Origins
LegendA story passed down, not confirmed by the sources.
The first printed White Lady contained no gin: in his 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails, Harry MacElhone, then at Ciro's in London, made it with brandy, crème de menthe and Cointreau. The MacElhone family claims the gin version was born in 1929 at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, but there is no evidence. The gin, Cointreau and lemon recipe appears in Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), though Craddock never claimed to have invented it. Press articles between 1934 and 1946 name Victor Cabrin of London's Grosvenor House as its creator. Egg white, common today, first appears in a recipe only in 1936.
Sources (2)
Taste profile
- Citrus
- 4 out of 5
- Strong
- 3 out of 5
- Sour
- 3 out of 5
- Sweet
- 2 out of 5
