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Singapore Sling
  • 1 1/2 ounce gin
  • 1/2 ounce Cherry Heering brandy
  • 1/4 ounce Cointreau
  • 1/4 ounce Benedictine
  • 4 ounces pineapple juice
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice
  • 1/3 ounce grenadine
  • dash bitters
Shake with ice. Strain into an ice filled collins glass. Garnish with cherry and slice of pineapple.
Singapore Sling
DrinkBoy says: I highly recommend this cocktail for anybody looking for a nice cool drink on a hot tropical day.

The Singapore Sling is one of those wonderful drinks that we probably have all heard of, but perhaps have never had. And because this recipe is often incorrectly recorded in most recipe books, even if you've think you've had it, you probably haven't.

One of the key, and often overlooked ingredients in this drink is Benedictine. While the resultant flavor is not overly predominate, it does add a certain flavor profile that would be totally missing without this secret ingredient.

None dispute that the Singapore Sling was originally created by Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon for the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. However that is where the agreements end. The exact date is in question, with some people claiming it was in 1915, some 1913, while the hotel itself claims that it was created sometime prior to 1910. There is also plenty of disagreement as to how closely the current version of this drink that is served at Raffles is to what was originally served. Apparently the original recipe was lost and forgotten sometime in the 1930's, and the drink that they currently serve at the hotel's Long Bar (see recipe below) is based on memories of former bartenders, and some written notes that they were able to discover.


A scanned in image of a recipe card from the Raffles Hotel in Singapore To the left, is the thumbnail of a scanned in image of a recipe card straight from the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. To make this not only more readable, but also to allow the text to be copied to your clipboard for storage (and so that search engines can find it) I've reproduced the menu below in HTML.

 LongBarLogo picture 
SINGAPORE SLING
The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel at the turn-of-the-century by Hainanese-Chinese bartender, Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon.
In the Hotel's museum, visitors may view the safe in which Mr. Ngiam locked away his precious recipe books, as well as the Sling recipe hastily jotted on a bar-chit in 1936 by a visitor to the Hotel who asked the waiter for it.
Originally, the Singapore Sling was meant as a woman's drink, hence the attractive pink colour. Today, it is very definately a drink enjoyed by all, without which any visit to Raffles Hotel is incomplete.
Recipe
30ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

 

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