ClassicsWinter

White Lady

Harry MacElhone, Ciro's Club, London, 1919; gin version at Harry's New York Bar, Paris, 1929

The White Lady is gin, Cointreau and lemon, shaken hard and served up. It is close to a gin Sidecar: clean, citrus-forward and dry, with the Cointreau giving a soft orange finish. Pale and bright, it suits the first stretch of winter.

  • GlassCoupe
  • MethodShaken
  • Ingredients3
White Lady

Ingredients

Making a batch?
Servings
Lemon peelGarnish
Total volume—

Directions

  1. Shake all ingredients hard with ice.
  2. Double strain into a chilled coupe.
  3. Express a lemon peel over the top and rest it on the rim.

ToolsJiggerShakerHawthorne strainerFine strainerCoupe glass

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History

Harry MacElhone created the first White Lady at Ciro's Club in London in 1919, using crème de menthe, triple sec and lemon. In 1929, at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, he swapped the crème de menthe for gin, and that version took over. The Savoy's American Bar credits its own Harry Craddock. Today the gin version is the standard.

Making a batch? Scale it for a crowd, add dilution water, and see how many bottles to buy.
Quick sizes
How are you making it? ⓘ Batching includes dilution water. Pre-batched cocktails need added water to replace the melt from stirring or shaking. We use Jeffrey Morgenthaler's standard: 18% for spirit-forward drinks, 25% for shaken.

What you'll need to buy

Based on 750ml bottles (25.4 oz), rounded up.

Bottle math, generally

750ml bottle25.4 oz
2 oz pours per bottle12 cocktails
1.5 oz pours per bottle16 cocktails
1 oz =29.6 ml
This recipe per 750ml of spirit—

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