The Clover Club is a pre-Prohibition cocktail that somehow got labeled as a feminine drink at some point in the 20th century and spent decades being overlooked by bartenders who should have known better. It showed up in the 1908 edition of Hugo Ensslin’s cocktail book as a gin drink with lemon, raspberry syrup, and egg white, and it was named after a Philadelphia men’s club. A men’s club. Let that sit for a second.

The drink deserves rehabilitation, and it’s been getting it over the past fifteen years as bartenders have rediscovered pre-Prohibition recipes and realized how good many of them actually are. Made properly, the Clover Club is a silky, complex, beautiful-looking drink with a flavor profile that earns the attention.

The version here uses Michter’s US*1 Rye in place of gin, which makes it a bourbon cousin of the original. The dry, spicy character of the rye plays against the raspberry sweetness in a way that’s genuinely compelling — less botanical than the gin version, more structured, with the spice creating a tension that keeps the drink from going too sweet.

Michter’s US*1 Rye and Raspberries

Michter’s US*1 Rye is a 91.4 proof rye from Louisville with a high-rye mash bill that brings the expected spice — black pepper, dried herbs — but also a fruit-forward quality that pairs unusually well with fresh raspberry. The berry sweetness and the rye spice find a balance that neither expected to find, and the egg white foam brings it all together in a drink that looks as good as it tastes.

Old Overholt Rye is the budget alternative — simpler and less nuanced but perfectly capable. Rittenhouse 100 steps up the proof and the spice for a more assertive version.

Raspberry Syrup

Raspberry syrup is easy to make at home and the fresh version is meaningfully better than bottled. Combine equal parts sugar and water in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer, add a handful of fresh raspberries, stir until the sugar dissolves and the berries break down, strain through a fine mesh strainer, and cool. It takes fifteen minutes and keeps in the fridge for a week.

Bottled raspberry syrup or raspberry liqueur like Chambord works in a pinch, but the fresh syrup has a brightness and a tartness that bottled products don’t replicate well.

The Egg White — Again

Same technique as the Whiskey Sour and the New York Sour — dry shake first without ice to build the foam, then add ice and shake again to chill. The Clover Club’s pink foam is one of the prettier cocktail presentations you’ll find anywhere, and it comes entirely from that dry shake technique. Do it right and the drink looks intentional. Skip it and it doesn’t.