The Singapore sling is a Singaporean sling drink made with gin. This lengthy cocktail was created before 1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon, who worked at the Long Bar at Singapore’s Raffles Hotel. It was originally known as the gin sling – a sling was a North American drink made of liquor and water, sweetened and flavoured.
Ingredients
20ml Bols Cherry Brandy
10ml Bols Triple Sec
60ml Damrak Gin
10ml D.O.M. Benedicte
15ml Fresh lime juice
25ml Pineapple juice
Angostura Bitters
Soda water
How to make a Singapore Sling
Except for the soda water, combine all of the ingredients in the cocktail shaker, including 2 dashes of Angostura bitters. Ice cubes should be placed in the cocktail shaker. Shake for 10 seconds, then strain into a highball glass packed with ice cubes. Garnish with a cherry and lemon peel.
History Of Singapore Sling
In the Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, D. A. Embury stated, “Of all the recipes published for Singapore Sling, I have never seen any two that were alike.” The “original recipe” called for two measures of gin, one of cherry brandy, and one each of orange, pineapple, and lime juice. Another “original recipe” uses gin, Cherry Heering, Bénédictine, and fresh pineapple juice, primarily from Sarawak (or “smooth cayenne” pineapples, which intensifies the flavour and forms a foamy top. The hotel’s recipe was replicated using previous bartenders’ memories and written notes about the original recipe that they discovered.
Present-day style
By the 1980s, the Singapore sling was frequently little more than gin, bottled sweet and sour, and grenadine, bearing little resemblance to the formula used elsewhere under the same name. By that time, the mix had become standardised as gin and cherry brandy in both the Raffles Hotel in Hong Kong and throughout the UK (in various ratios between 2:1 and 1:2). By the year 2000, benedictine and pineapple juice were becoming more popular. In New Orleans, Hurricane mix was sometimes used instead of pineapple.
Unless you specify the date of the drink or your original recipe, you have little chance of getting something you could recognise nowadays or worldwide.
