A 'Pink Clover Club' is a delicious gin, lime and grenadine based cocktail.
It was invented over 100 years ago by an exclusive private members club that shared its name.
See below for the fascinating story behind the drink, and find out how it has been linked to 'finding love'.
To make this legendary drink follow this recipe.
Cocktail Ingredients
- 30mls gin
- 15mls grenadine
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 5 ice cubes
- sugar to taste
Put the ice cubes into a cocktail shaker. Pour the lime juice, grenadine, and gin over the ice and shake vigorously until a frost forms.
Add sugar to taste.
Strain and serve with a lime slice.
The Story Behind the Drink
The Pink Clover Club cocktail was invented in the 1890s by an exclusive gentleman’s club in Philadelphia, the 'Clover Club'. We're told that its members included many famous "celebrities of pen, brush and stage".
Members of the Clover Club were also a pretty boozy lot... Whenever they attended, they were said to have: “dined and wined... and wined again," according to the 'Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book' of 1933.
The 'Loving Cup'
During every Clover Club dinner, an ornate silver cup belonging to the club would be filled with a mysterious alcoholic drink, and toasts were drunk out of it as part of some kind of ritual. This cup was known as the ‘Loving Cup’.
For many years, the contents of the intriguing concoction within the cup were kept a strictly guarded secret, but it is now widely believed to have been the club’s unique Pink Clover Club cocktail.
The exact purposes of this ritual are not known, but we think that the toasts were made to 'love’, and to stumbling across new romantic liaisons.
"The knowledge of the composition of the brew in the 'Loving Cup' is not common property. It is potent, it is strong. Those who have dipped more than once in its spring have mentioned its penetrating properties and its enervating powers. Double vision may follow two indulgences..."
- Mary R Deacon, ‘The Clover Club of Philadelphia’ 1897
Famous Members of the Clover Club
One particularly famous person recorded to have wined and dined at the Clover Club was Mark Twain, legendary author of Huckleberry Finn. Interesting to think of the eminent Mark Twain toasting to ‘love’ with a Pink Clover Club Cocktail!
“When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.”
- Mark Twain, ‘Notebook’ 1898
If you're going to try out the cocktail, please drink responsibly!
