Sampling the White Lady

The White Lady Cocktail

2 oz gin

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe from The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess.

I picked up a bottle of Beefeater and was eager to try it out in comparison with Gordon's and Bombay Sapphire. I was going to make a Gin Sour with each of the gins but at the last moment decided to use the White Lady as a comparison cocktail.

First impressions were: the Gordon's is overwhelming. It is so so heavy on the juniper that it distracts from the rest of the cocktail. The Bombay Sapphire and the Beefeater were more similar. The Beefeater cocktail tasted sweeter than that made with Sapphire. Even sipping these two gins neat, I taste the Beefeater as being more sweet. The mixed drink might not have been the best place for all the botanicals of the Sapphire to shine. Perhaps a more apt comparison between Beefeater and the Sapphire might be in a martini with just a splash of white vermouth.

In the end, when it comes to the White Lady cocktail, I preferred the drink made with Beefeater gin.