THE SINGAPORE SLING

By Jennifer Campbell

	Better Bitters To make an old-style Singapore Sling, you’re going to have to get your hands on some bitters. A mix of different herbs or spices steeped in alcohol, bitters were originally brewed as medicinal tonics and were a common ingredient in early cocktails. Here’s how to find them: Angostura bitters is comprised of a tightly guarded aromatic blend, formulated in 1824 by Dr. J.G.B Siegert. The only bitters easily found today, you can pick them along side the drink mixes at most grocery stores. Orange bitters are tougher to procure. The brew of orange peel and spices was also an ingredient in the original Dry Martini. You can order Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6, from the Buffalo Trace Distillery gift shop in Frankfort, Kentucky by calling 1-800-654-6471.

From its opening in1887, Singapore’s legendary Raffles Hotel has been a meeting place for the rich, the famous and the literary.

Guests of the colonial rest stop included Rudyard Kipling, Charlie Chaplin, and Noel Coward. Famed regular Somerset Maugham reportedly penned some of his stories under the hotel’s frangipani tree. It was here, at Raffles’ Long Bar, that barman Ngiam Tong Boon, mixed the first Singapore Sling.

The cocktail, whose original recipe has since been lost, was first slung either before 1910 or in 1915 (depending who you believe). It was likely called the Straits Sling at first, but by the 1930s, the name changed to one more befitting the drink’s origin. (Harry Craddock’s 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book lists a recipe under both monikers, with the Singapore Sling containing only gin, lemon juice, cherry brandy and soda water. The Straits version looks more like the Sling we know today.) It’s said that the cocktail was intended for women; hence the pinky colour. (However, Charles H. Baker Jr., upon his fourth round of the mix, noted in his Gentleman’s Companion, that the Singapore Sling was a “delicious, slow-acting, insidious thing,” so it can’t be only the fairer sex who partook.)

While the Singapore Sling may be the only sling you’ve ever heard of, many drink historians note that it’s hardly a sling at all any more. Slings go back as far as 1675 and until the Singapore version eclipsed all others, they seemed to contain not much more than liquor, ice, a lemon slice and perhaps some soda water. No pineapple juice, no maraschino cherries, and certainly no paper umbrellas. These additions likely came later, when the Singapore Sling got mixed in with the all-things-South Seas Tiki craze that started during the 1930’s and hit fever pitch during the ‘50s and ‘60s.

There are as many Singapore Sling recipes as there are bartenders, but for starters, you can give these a try:

The Official

The Raffles Hotel (where the bevvie continues to put bums on barstools) lists the Sling ingredients on their coasters, but since the original’s been lost, the recipe is based only on memories and unearthed notes:

• 1 oz. Gin
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Brandy
• 4 oz. Pineapple Juice
• 1/2 oz. Lime Juice
• 1/4 oz. Cointreau
• 1/4 oz. Dom Bénédictine
• 1/3 oz. Grenadine
• A Dash of Angostura Bitters
  
  Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

The Classic
If you’re looking for a “historic” taste of Singapore, the earliest published recipe, from 1922’s Cocktails and How to Mix Them, may be closer to the original.

This well-known Singapore drink, thoroughly ice and shaken, contains:

• 2 dashes of Orange Bitters,
• 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters,
• The juice of half a lemon
• 1/8 gill of Bénédictine
• 1/8 gill of Dry Cherry Brandy
• 1/2 gill of Gin.
  
  Pour into a tumbler and fill up with cold soda water.

Tip: One gill equals four fluid ounces