Cocktail · Spirit-forward
White Lady
Gin, Cointreau, lemon — a sidecar that switched to gin and gained composure.
How to order it: Optional egg white for silk. Coupe, no garnish, perfect posture.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 2 oz gin
- ¾ oz Cointreau
- ¾ oz lemon juice
- Optional egg white
- Shake; coupe; no garnish
The story
The White Lady belongs to Harry MacElhone, who first mixed a version with crème de menthe at Ciro's Club in London in 1919, then thought better of it and rebuilt the drink on gin at Harry's New York Bar in Paris a decade later. Harry Craddock enshrined the gin version in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, and the Savoy's American Bar has treated it as house property ever since. Laurel and Hardy were reportedly devotees. It endures because it is the sidecar's cooler-headed sibling: the same citrus geometry, but gin's botanicals give it a pale, composed clarity that brandy never quite manages.
Classic variation
The White Lady is a riff on a classic. Meet the original:
Adjacent pours