The Story Behind The White Port Clover Club

The Clover Club cocktail is tart and refreshing, combining the flavors of gin, lemon, and raspberry syrup, topped with a layer of froth. I wondered how I might translate those flavors into a low-alcohol version for friends and guests who were drinking less.

I thought back to a recent visit to Porto, Portugal, where dry white port, a fortified white wine, is used in aperitifs like the porto tonico. With its citrus palate and wonderful notes of stone fruit, dry port would have enough depth of character to swap in for gin at a much lower alcohol level.

Then I turned to the raspberries. Muddling fresh raspberries with grenadine would give vibrant color and flavor. And for a sweetener, I wanted something with more complexity than simple syrup, so I tried out a honey syrup that lingers pleasantly on the palate. The result is a refreshing cocktail with all the flavor and charm of the original, in a more sessionable format.

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces white port
1 ounce lemon juice
½ ounce grenadine
½ ounce honey syrup
5 raspberries
1 egg white

Directions

In a cocktail shaker, add grenadine and raspberries.
Muddle raspberries and raspberries to extract the flavor and color.
Add white port, lemon juice, honey syrup, egg white, and ice to the cocktail shaker.
Shake hard for approximately 30 seconds to chill and combine ingredients.
Strain the cocktail and shake again, this time without ice to further emulsify ingredients.
Double strain into a coupe glass.