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# The White Mouse cocktail from London's The Stafford hotel and the life of spy Nancy Wake
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/tridtsat-millilitrov-shafranovogo-dzhina-piatnadtsat-millilitrov-svezhego-limonnogo-soka-piatnadtsat-millilitrov-medovo-rozmarinovogo-siropa-sukhoe-shampanskoe-i-zvezdochka-badiana-dlia/
- Published: 2026-10-08T05:34:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T05:50:13.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: London, Mores, People

Thirty millilitres of saffron gin, fifteen millilitres of fresh lemon juice, fifteen millilitres of honey and rosemary syrup, dry champagne and a star anise for garnish.

The White Mouse cocktail is named after the legendary Nancy Wake, the most decorated servicewoman of the Second World War. The Gestapo nicknamed her the White Mouse for her elusiveness. In her last years Nancy lived at The Stafford, a London hotel, where this drink was created especially for her.

To make it, pour the gin, lemon juice and syrup into a shaker filled with ice, shake thoroughly for fifteen seconds, then strain the liquid into a chilled coupe glass, carefully top the glass up with cold champagne and garnish with a star anise on top.

Before the war Nancy was a society lioness and a journalist; she became the spy most wanted by the Third Reich and a legend of the French Resistance. The Nazis put a price of 5 million francs on her head, but never managed to catch her, nicknaming her the “White Mouse” for her incredible elusiveness.

After the war Nancy Wake became the most decorated female serviceperson among the Allied forces, receiving the highest military honours: the Croix de Guerre in France, the Medal of Freedom in the United States, the Companion of the Order of Australia, and she was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

She lived a long life and died in 2011 at the age of 98, bequeathing that her ashes be scattered over the mountains of France where she had fought. Today her story is told in dozens of books, and her image formed the basis of several war dramas.

Among this woman's feats is the escape network: at the beginning of the war she organised underground routes along which she led hundreds of downed Allied airmen and Jewish refugees out of occupied France into Spain. When the Germans destroyed their radio set, Nancy cycled 500 km through enemy checkpoints in 72 hours to contact London and request new equipment. Possessed of considerable physical fitness, during one of the raids she personally and silently killed a German sentry with a special technique, to save her unit from discovery. She commanded a partisan detachment of 7,000 maquis fighters, staging large-scale sabotage, blowing up depots and storming Gestapo headquarters.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/10/file_207.jpg)