Singapore Sling Cocktail Recipe
A complex tropical gin sling with cherry liqueur, citrus and spice.
- Category: Contemporary Classics
- Glass: Hurricane glass
- ABV: 16%
- Difficulty: Hard
- Prep time: ~6 min
Ingredients
- Gin30 ml (1 oz)
- Cherry liqueur (Cherry Heering)15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Cointreau7 ml (0.2 oz)
- Bénédictine7 ml (0.2 oz)
- Pineapple juice90 ml (3 oz)
- Fresh lime juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Grenadine10 ml (0.3 oz)
- Angostura bitters1 dash
How to Make It
- Shake all ingredients with ice.
- Strain into a hurricane glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with pineapple and a cherry.
Garnish
Pineapple slice and cherry
What it tastes like
Fruit notes come forward and it is layered, giving you something different each sip.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
The curved, tall hurricane glass. Tiki and tropical drinks often run past 200 ml, and this is the shape that holds that volume along with the ice.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Gin
- London dry gin: juniper up front, citrus and coriander behind it. Brand really does show here — Beefeater is sharp, Hendrick's floral, Tanqueray juniper-heavy.
- Cointreau
- The French orange liqueur, 40% alcohol. It is the dry, strong end of triple sec; swap in a cheap triple sec and the drink gets sweeter and loses its backbone.
- Bénédictine
- A French liqueur made with honey and 27 botanicals. Sweet and spiced; it usually pairs with cognac or whiskey, and because it does the sweetening, the recipe skips syrup.
- Pineapple juice
- Pineapple juice. It foams on its own when shaken — that creamy head on a tiki drink comes from the pineapple, not from egg white.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Grenadine
- Pomegranate syrup. Most supermarket bottles are dyed corn syrup with no pomegranate in them; reducing pomegranate juice with an equal weight of sugar takes ten minutes and changes the drink completely.
- Angostura bitters
- The salt of the cocktail world. Measured in dashes, not millilitres: a few of them cut the sweetness and add spice. One bottle lasts years.
The Story
Created around 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Singapore Sling mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a hurricane glass.
- How strong is a Singapore Sling?
- Roughly 16% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Singapore Sling be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Singapore Sling hard to make?
- Hard. Either something has to be prepared in advance or a step needs timing; halving the measures on the first attempt is sensible.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.