It started out innocuously enough, with old episodes of Fraiser playing in the background while I was piddling around scrolling on my phone — because Fraiser is an excellent show to kind of ignore and still be able to keep up with. It's the episode where they first go to the SeaBee awards, and Fraiser is up against a radio show host who is going to retire. The retiring host brought his 80 plus year old mother to the awards show as his date and at some point says, "Go sit down, mother, and I'll bring you another pink lady cocktail."
I glanced up at that point and saw the mother was dressed in a baby pink suit, and wondered what a pink lady was. A cocktail of sorts, yes, but what kind of cocktail does an 80+ year old lady like? So still with no real rhyme or reason, I looked it up and clicked on a few links. The different versions popped out immediately. One called for egg whites, one for cream. Both included Applejack (which I had to look up, it's an apple brandy), and one called for lemon juice, while the other did not.
My interest piqued further at this point, I went to my bookshelf to check out my hardcover bartending books: the Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide, and the Harvey Collins' Drink Guide. Neither of these versions include Applejack, but one has egg whites, and the other cream. For even more variation, one includes lemon AND lime juice!
So, Which Lady is Best?
These four pink lady recipes seemed like enough so I set out to recreate each of these four pink ladies to see which one was most appealing to my tastes. The only ingredient I did't have on hand was the Applejack, but I was luckily able to find after calling around to a few nearby liquor stores. Unfortunately, they all only had them in 750 mL bottles so now I have a ton of Applejack.
There are a few main variations I noticed:
- Applejack vs. no Applejack
- Egg whites vs. no egg whites
- Cream vs. no cream
All of them do include two main ingredients — gin and grenadine, and all were shaken with ice.
Mr. Boston Pink Lady
Let's start with the most basic. This recipe had the fewest ingredients at four.
- 1 egg white
- 1 teaspoon grenadine
- 1 teaspoon heavy cream
- 1 ½ ounces gin
This was a very light pink, barely pink at all. It is the ginniest version, with it comprising more than half the drink.
Harvey Collins' Pink Lady
- Dash lemon juice
- Dash heavy cream
- Dash grenadine
- ¾ ounce lime juice
- 1 ½ ounces gin
This one sat the best with me, the tang from the two citrus juices helping to cut through the gin most easily. She was a bit pinker than the first one, thanks to my slightly heavier hand with the dash of grenadine. That's the benefit of vague terms like dash — if you're making your own drinks you can pour to your preferences.
The Spruce Eats Pink Lady
- 1 egg white
- 2 dashes grenadine
- ¼ ounce lemon juice
- ¾ ounce Applejack
- 1 ½ ounces gin
This one from The Spruce Eats introduces a variation, the addition of Applejack. While I do appreciate the frothy lightness the egg white brings to this drink, I just am not a fan of the Applejack. It interacts sourly and unpleasantly with the citrus and the gin, but I chalk that up to my preferences.
Given my distaste for the Applejack, I didn't even try the fourth variation, which included it and also had some weird math I didn't feel like engaging in after three drinks.
All of this being said, I easily saw how I would combine elements from the above to make my perfect pink lady, and here she is.
My Pink Lady
- Egg white
- Dash lemon juice
- Dash heavy cream
- 2 dashes grenadine
- ¾ ounce lime juice
- 1 ½ ounces gin
Dry shake the egg white in a shaker (or use a hand held frother! SO much better and foamier and easier on your arms). Add ice, then the ingredients in order. Shake together til thoroughly chilled, and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a maraschino cherry if you have one, and enjoy! This one is refreshingly citrusy, creamy, frothy, and much less gin-y tasting than the others, which is my preference.
Which pink lady do you think is your ideal lady?
