Clover Leaf — tasting notes & food pairings

Clover Leaf

The Clover Leaf is the Clover Club dressed with mint — a pre-Prohibition sour of gin, fresh lemon and grenadine shaken with egg white and served up with a foamy pink cap. The single change from its parent is the garnish: where the Clover Club takes a berry or nothing at all, the Clover Leaf adds a fresh mint sprig, and in the fullest version a sprig is shaken into the drink so its cool herbal lift threads through the tart, fruity foam.

Sweet-tart18% ABV

Soft rose-pink beneath a pillowy pale cap, the Clover Leaf smells first of cool, fresh mint and bright lemon, then of dry juniper gin and the sweet, berry-red pomegranate of grenadine. On the palate it is a silky, foamy sour — tart lemon set against light grenadine sweetness, the egg white lending a round, creamy texture that softens the acid — with the mint threading a green, aromatic coolness through the whole drink and a clean, gently tart finish at around 18 percent alcohol in the glass.