The Singapore Sling at the Long Bar, Raffles Hotel

Perhaps no cocktail has as much mystique, lore and confusion about it as the Singapore Sling...

First served to the world from what was once a far-off land, the Singapore Sling’s name immediately conjurors up images of a romanticized time when writers, politicians, tycoons and socialites would gather to cool off with a long, cold, tropical concoction. Today, the name will often conjuror up looks of confusion from your average bartender as they go in search of that one ingredient… that one ingredient which they can’t quite put their finger one…that one ingredient which seems to be missing from the bar and so the drink cannot, unfortunately, be prepared.

Just about every drop of this cocktail is up for debate including its name, exact date of inception, and most especially its recipe. We have just a few facts to cling to and yet, for not completely fully knowing how this cocktail should be made, it remains an enduring classic. But perhaps, oddly enough, it is the lore and mystery rather than its precise balance and consistency that make the Singapore Sling so legendary.

In his 1948 “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks”, David Embry writes of the Singapore Sling, “Of all the recipes published for this drink, I have never seen any two that were alike. Essentially it is a Gin Sling with the addition of cherry brandy.”

Named after Lieutenant-Governor Stamford Raffles, who decades earlier decided the mostly ignored island of Singapore would make a perfect port for Britain to better gain control of Asian trade routes, The Raffels Hotel was a legend in its own time. Completed in 1887, it was most famous for accepting guests of any race. A temporary home to journalists, novelists, royals, adventurers, and tourists, stories of the hotel quickly spread throughout the world. These stories, as stories often do, included some tales of drinking at the hotel’s Long Bar. So, luckily, mentions of the cocktails from the Raffles Hotel do have literary mention, unfortunately they are not always consistent.

The “facts” which are, for the most, agreed upon are that the drink was invented by barman Ngiam Tong Boon around 1915 at the legendary Long Bar within the famous Raffels Hotel. Yet now, that excepted date is even in question as 1910 and 1913 keep popping up. Drink historian David Wondrich has pulled up evidence of “slings” mentioned as early as 1897 and a 1903 reference to “pink Slings for White People”. At least with this note, there is recognition of color – pink - or pinkish at least.

The Raffels admits that the exact recipe was lost very soon after its inception. So the recipe was lost, gone for good, forever.

Writings pop-up from the first half of the Twentieth Century with references to a long or tall drink with gin, cherry brandy, citrus, biters and on occasion there is reference to the herbal French liqueur Benedictine. Even with that frame-work for the cocktail, there is disagreement on the exact measurements and even its exact name as it comes up as the Straits Sling and Raffles Sling along with the Singapore Sling, which probably caught on for the allure of its exotic name and the ease of alliteration.

The commonalities which appear would make this cocktail a Gin Sling – Gin, Lemon, Sugar, Bitters and Soda – with cherry brandy added. And this cherry brandy would almost certainly have been Peter F. Heering Cherry Liqueur, which was widely shipped around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Yet the widely accepted version, and the one served today at the Raffles, contains grenadine and pineapple, neither of these ingredients appears in any tidbits of writing. So why the confusion?  Well, the Sling was not the only famous cocktail created by Mr. Boon at the Long Bar. His other gift to the cocktail world was the Million Dollar cocktail. Another gin based cocktail, this one containing sweet vermouth and egg white along with pineapple and grenadine. As recipes were lost and as memories attempted to piece them back together, the blending of the two recipes was entirely possible.

Today, tourists still visit the Long Bar at the Raffles in search of that legendary concoction which the hotel serves thousands of each year.

The hotel’s official recipe is:

Official Raffles Hotel Singapore Sling Recipe

30 ml (1 oz) Gordon's gin

15 ml (1/2 oz) Heering Cherry Liqueur

120 ml (4 oz) pineapple juice

15 ml (1/2 oz) lime juice

7.5 ml (1/4 oz) Cointreau

7.5 ml (1/4 oz) DOM Benedictine

10 ml (1/3 oz) grenadine

A dash of Angostura Bitters

Garnish with a slice of pineapple and cherry.

Note: At the Raffles Hotel, the gin used is Gordon's, the cherry brandy is Cherry Heering, and the grenadine is Bols.

Something a bit more striped-down and closer to the original Straits Sling would be:

2 oz Gin

½ oz  of Bénédictine.

½ oz of Cherry Heering

¾ oz Lemon Juice

2 dashes of Orange Bitters,

2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a fizz glass, add 2 oz chilled soda water and two pieces of ice.

So in the case of the Singapore Sling, the usual, is a bit unusual. 

The Kentucky Derby and the Bourbon Mint Juelp

Thoroughbreds, hats and juleps are the trifecta of tradition that grace the Churchill Downs the first Saturday of every May. This is the Kentucky Derby, a place where the best of the best compete for the most coveted title in the racing world. And a race which is celebrated with one cocktail, a drink which has become synonymous with the derby: The Mint Julep. According to organizers of the Derby, over 120,000 Juleps will be served at Churchill Dows over the two-day weekend event.

If mention of the Kentucky Derby instantly brings about images of well-healed spectators sipping on frosty mint juleps, then the mention of a mint julep evokes images of green sprigs of mint, dew covered sliver cups, stately gentlemen on lush Southern lawns. But what is now reserved for one day a year, was once one of the most popular cocktails served in this country. The Cosmopolitan of its day. And it wasn’t just reserved for the south, the Julep was popular in northern urban cities just as it was on southern plantations.

The word julep was for centuries applied to a medical treatment. A concoction prescribed by a doctor to his sick patient to cure a variety of ailments. Sometime in the 18^th-Century, the Julep in America became a morning nip, something much closer to a cocktail than a medicinal cure. Soon mint found its way into the drink and eventually a formula for the julep developed. A Julep is a category of drink, meaning that it has a prescribed structure and methodology, but the base spirit can be swapped out for another. For example a thirsty customer could call for a Julep made with rum or cognac. But in the heart of the south, in the land of bourbon, to make a julep with anything but the local spirit would be unthinkable.

Yet, the word Julep also stirs words of debate, a gentlemanly debate of course. There are questions of if the mint should be muddled, infused into the sugar, or simply there as a garnish and not in the body of the drink at all. However, this is not a place for debate, simply some information of this world famous race and its tradition.

Since 1939 Churchill Downs has promoted the Mint Juelp as the signature drink of the derby. Although nowadays some short-cuts are taken to make the drink en masse  to accommodate the thousands of thirsty spectators what follows is simply my preferred way to prepare a julep.

Recipe: Bourbon Mint Julep

• In the bottom of a silver julep cup add 4 or 5 fresh mint leaves along with 1 oz of simple syrup (1 to 1 ratio). Gently press the mint, making sure not to tear or bruise the mint.
• Add 2 oz of strong bourbon.
• Fill the cup with crushed ice and stir until the outside of the cup is frosted. The level of drop, so add more ice until it there is a glistening mound crowning the cup.
• Select a few fresh bunches of mint and plunge close together into the ice.
• Place a straw into the julep close to the mint and cut the straw, if necessary, so that its length is just taller than that of the mint leaves.

Some tips

• Always use the freshest mint possible, discard brown, dried and limp looking mint
• Placement of the straw is key, a drinker’s nose should be buried in the mint
• Use a higher-proof bourbon, 100 proof or more. The crushed ice will water down the julep and bring down the proof. Starting with an 80-proof bourbon will create a weak watered down drink.