How can I have been doing this so long and never have spoken about my unabiding love for the movie Grease? I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have watched it. And I always wanted to be in a cool girl gang like The Pink Ladies. However , today we are not going to talk about my want to be this type of pink lady:
But about a classic cocktail of the same name – possibly the inspiration for the name of the aforementioned girl gang as I believe the Pink Lady was popular drink in the 1950’s. My “French” take on the classic Pink Lady is that, traditionally applejack is an ingredient in a Pink Lady. However, Applejack was not available in my little suburban bottle shop so I subbed in Calvados. Using French Apple brandy is also a teeny homage to one of the Pink Ladies, Frenchie!
So, in the infamous words of Rizzo, “Okay girls, let’s go get ’em”
The Pink Lady has been around for decades, according to the fount of all knowledge Wikipedia, it was already well known in the Prohibition era. It was also the drink of choice of choice of Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield. I’m not sure if she is holding a Pink Lady in the picture below but it’s pink so let’s put two and two together and raise a glass with Jayne! OMG…how glamourous is she! If just ONE day of my life I could have that sort of va-va-voom I would die happy!
Don’t let the sweet and innocent look of the Pink Lady lull you into a false sense of security. This is not girly drink made from sugar and spice and all things nice. The Pink Lady packs a punch! It almost straight gin, topped up with Applejack / Calvados, with a dash of grenadine, a splash of lemon juice and an egg white being the non-alcoholic components.
French Pink Lady
Ingredients
- 45ml gin
- 22.5 ml calvados
- 7.5 ml lemon juice
- 1–2 dashes grenadine
- 1 egg white
- Maraschino cherry for garnish
Instructions
- Pour the gin, calvados, lemon juice and grenadine into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
- Shake vigorously.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
I am on a work trip to Canberra for the next few days. There will be precious little time for sight-seeing in our Capital city but I’ll try to fit in a run and see if I can get some photos to share with you all. And right now I need to go pack my bag for the flight tomorrow morning!
Have a fabulous week and remember – think pink!
