Singapore Sling
COCKTAIL INGREDIENTS:
- 45 ml London Dry Gin
- 15 ml Cherry Liqueur
(Preferably Cherry Heering)
- 10 ml Cointreau
- 10 ml Benedictine
- 60/120 ml Pineapple Juice
- 22,5 ml Fresh Lime Juice
- 10 ml Grenadine
- 1 Dash Angostura Bitters
GARNISH:
- Pineapple Spears
- Cherry
- Lemon Twist
INSTRUCTIONS:
• Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
• Add ice and shake until chilled.
• Strain into a cocktail glass over fresh ice.
• Garnish with pineapple spears and a skewered cherry.
Cocktail author: most likely Ngiam Tong Boon (The Long Bar in Singapore's Raffles Hotel). However this origin story is still up for debate.
Tropical gin-based cocktail is not a common find, although Singapore Sling has been on the books for around a century. Certainly, long enough to inspire many other drinks. It is a quintessential tropical cocktail, full of bold flavours and basically ticking every box.
As already mentioned, base spirit of the cocktail is gin with its juniper notes and botanicals. It is then paired with rich and sweet cherry liqueur, orange notes of triple sec and complex botanicals of Benedictine. Further tropical textures are brought by the fruitiness of pineapple and lime juices, scrumptious sweetness of grenadine and finishing spices of the bitters.
I have experimented a bit with the cocktail specs. In the beginning, I used the recipe from an old Steve The Bartender’s post with original cocktail recipe. I found it a bit too sweet, so I kept digging and twisted the ratios a bit more to my liking. I reduced the amount of pineapple juice to 60 ml which enabled other ingredients to come forward and then increased the amount of lime juice for further balance.
Singapore Sling is a remarkable tropical cocktail that is simply bursting with flavour. If you ever want a break from rum-based tiki cocktails, Singapore Sling is the right choice. A drink every cocktail enthusiast should try.