Halfway Between a Daisy and a Sour, the White Lady Is a Must-Try Classic Gin Cocktail

Like many Prohibition-era classic cocktails, the light and refreshing White Lady has a winding and nebulous history. Before the combination of London Dry gin, triple sec, lemon juice, and egg white became the standard recipe, a completely different cocktail was known as the White Lady.

The first and lesser-known version is believed to have been created by London-based bartender Harry McElhone. According to The Oxford Companion of Spirits and Cocktails, McElhone’s version combined brandy, crème de menthe, and Cointreau and first appeared in print in the 1922 edition of Harry’s ABCs of Mixing Cocktails. 

The second iteration of the White Lady was comprised of gin, lemon juice, and triple sec, in equal proportions. The cocktail was shaken and served up with the occasional addition of an egg white for improved texture. This variation was wildly popular in England through the 1930s, and the recipe was eventually enshrined in Harry Craddock’s influential collection of recipes, The Savoy Cocktail Book. When modern bartenders rediscovered the White Lady, it was quickly adjusted for balance, and the recipe we know today took shape.

Why the White Lady works

This version of the White Lady is based on two of the most commonly used cocktail formats, the Daisy and the Sour. A Daisy is any drink that combines a base spirit with citrus juice and uses a liqueur as the sweetening agent instead of sugar or simple syrup. If that combination sounds familiar, it’s because the Daisy is the blueprint for the Margarita and the classic Sidecar. 

With the inclusion of an egg white, the White Lady also bears a resemblance to the traditional Gin Sour. Without adding much flavor, the egg white acts as a foaming agent. When shaken with the other ingredients, it gives the White Lady a thicker, frothier texture and also helps to soften any of the harsher flavors of the gin and lemon juice. 

The White Lady could be thought of as either a gin-based Daisy with egg white or a Gin Sour with triple sec instead of sugar. However the drink is conceived of, this combination of styles makes the White Lady an undeniably bright, soft, and refreshing cocktail.