Preparation
- Chill the serving glass. Add the measured ingredients to a shaker.
- Add plenty of solid ice cubes and shake vigorously for about 10-15 seconds.
- Strain through a bar strainer into the chilled glass; the shaken ice stays in the shaker.
- Finish with a garnish: a pineapple chunk and a cocktail cherry.
What does it taste like?
You taste the pineapple first. It fills out the drink and makes it soft and fruity. Next comes the cherry from the liqueur, sweet and dark. The gin brings juniper along, while the herbal liqueur lays a sweet spice over the top. Lime keeps everything fresh, otherwise the mix would turn overly sweet. The grenadine adds color and a touch more sugar. A small bitter note from the Angostura lingers at the end. 30 ml of gin and 30 ml of liqueurs combined meet 120 ml of pineapple juice and 15 ml of lime juice, plus grenadine and bitters: the drink comes across as mild, though it's stronger than it tastes.
When does it work best?
The Singapore Sling suits a warm evening or a party. It's long, cold, and fruity, so sip it slowly over half an hour. Beginners handle it well since the alcohol hides behind the pineapple. That's exactly the danger, though: it tastes more harmless than it actually is. Anyone who prefers dry, bitter drinks should look elsewhere.
What matters
Use a large glass and a large shaker. With 120 milliliters of pineapple juice, things get cramped otherwise. Measure the cherry liqueur and herbal liqueur precisely, or the 7.5 milliliters get lost in the juice and all you'll taste is fruit. The recipe calls for fresh pineapple juice. Freshly pressed, it foams during shaking and leaves a fine crown on the drink.
Where the drink comes from
The Singapore Sling is linked to Ngiam Tong Boon and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The hotel cites 1915 as its year of origin. It's not quite that simple, though: drinks from the gin sling family already existed beforehand, and the recipe changed several times afterward. The version loaded with pineapple juice that you know today may not match the early Singapore Sling at all. One thing is certain, though: grand hotel bars have shaped the cocktail world, and this drink is among their most famous results.