Our raspberries are destined for Clover Club cocktails

Fresh raspberries have to be one of my favourite luxuries. When we moved to Sydney, I couldn’t believe we could buy fresh raspberries all year round. Growing up, I don’t think I’d ever seen them for sale in a supermarket at home in Aotearoa.

That’s all changed with the success of local growers like Maungatapere Berries. I look forward to raspberry season every year and try to wait until the prices for the little punnets come down a bit before I indulge. 

Last year, Mark wanted to see if we could grow our own supply so bought more than two dozen raspberry plants to go in our food forest. As that area has evolved, we had to rethink the placement of those raspberry plants and, unfortunately, cut them all the way back to make room for other species.  

So, this season I wasn’t expecting much of a harvest. Even so, I’ve checked our raspberry bushes every few days just to make sure I don’t give the birds a chance to steal any of our homegrown berries. We’ve had a few here and there, and I thought that was all we’d get this year.

But after the recent warm weather I’ve noticed our plants are now laden with little berries. I’m waiting impatiently for them to ripen.  

As soon I have more than a few ripe raspberries to pick, I’ll use some in this delicious raspberry gin cocktail: The Clover Club. I first heard about this classic cocktail from Anders Erickson, a bartender turned YouTuber. He makes entertaining videos and shares easy-to-follow cocktail recipes.  

I love most of his recipes but tweaked his Clover Club recipe to our taste after studying a few others that used fresh raspberries instead of raspberry syrup.  

Here’s our recipe for The Clover Club (serves 1) 

4 fresh raspberries to muddle + 3 to garnish (optional) 

¾ ounce fresh lemon juice 

½ ounce simple syrup (Anders suggests a 1:1.5 ratio of water to sugar for a better mouth feel) 

1 egg white 

1 ½ ounces gin (use one that you like the taste of) 

Pour the lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker and lightly muddle with the raspberries. Add the egg white and gin and dry shake (shake without ice) to emulsify the egg white for about 10 seconds. Add ice and shake hard for 18 seconds to get a really frothy cocktail. Double strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass if you have one, or just use whatever you have.  

Let me know if you make one, and if you make one, you might as well make two!