Singapore Sling

My own connection to the drink is somewhat tenuous. In 1886: The Armenian Sarkies brothers bought the mansion of Captain George Julius Dare in Singapore’s prestigious "Twenty - House Street" (Beach Road). This Capt. Dare, a multifaceted businessman of his day, was the father-in-law of Sir Thomas Jackson. His extended family did pretty much every kind of business imaginable, including hotels, and the present day Raffles was built where he once lived. Dare died before the drink was invented, hence my tenuous link. Not that this stops me.

Photo at Wiki - licenced by Creative Commons

We afterwards strolled into the jungle in the hopes of getting some pigeon, but were rather aghast at coming across the fresh tracks of a tiger, and, having no kind friends to write our obituary notice and no gun with us for big game, returned in double quick time to the bungalow. None of the others would move out of the house, being too lazy, and their chief enjoyment consisted in making and drinking cocktails and sleeping !
George Mildmay Dare (1840-1907) – brother-in-law of Sir Thomas Jackson.

History of the drink: The Singapore Sling was invented by Ngiam Tong Boon (嚴崇文) for the Raffles Hotel in Singapore sometime between1910-1915. The version that he served was quite different from most of the recipes that are in vogue today, but was apparently also an innovation at the time, albeit based on other recipes that were popular back then. Apparently, there were many different Singapore Slings. While the recipes around the city could vary significantly from place to place, the cocktail served at Raffles remained pretty much the same. 

The original recipe: The original recipe incorporated gin, cherry brandy, and Benedictine (most often in equal parts). The drink was then shaken over ice, strained into a glass, and then topped up with club soda. The recipe used more recently by the hotel was based on the original recipe as recalled by former bartenders, as well as the information gleaned from written notes that the hotel staff were able to discover. The current Raffles Hotel recipe is a much modified version of the original, most likely changed sometime in the 1970s by the Ngiam Tong Boon's nephew.

My version: My own version comes from Adeline Tan, a long time staff member (retired) of Raffles. Her version of the recipe made no reference to club soda, thank goodness. Since I can’t buy cherry brandy on the Sunshine Coast – not a great loss in my opinion - I use Pomegranate Liquor in its place. According to all reports, this is a great and good thing.
You can tell by the quantities beneath, that this drink is a fave rave at some of our parties. The juices can be premixed ahead of time, but since I use fresh lime, it doesn’t keep for too long. Once I even juiced up a half dozen fresh pineapples for making drinks -  they were on sale at the time. They did it justice..

Ingredients	Metric	Imp	4Xs	8Xs
Gin	30 ml	1 oz	4 oz	8 oz
Cherry Brandy	15 ml	½ oz	2 oz	4 oz
Pineapple Juice	120 ml	4 oz	16 oz	32 oz
Lime Juice	15 ml	½ oz	2 oz	4 oz
Cointreau	7.5 ml	1 ½ tsp	1 oz	2 oz
Dom Benedictine	7.5 ml	1 ½ tsp	1 oz	2 oz
Grenadine	10 ml	2 tsp	1 ¼ oz	2 ½ oz
Angostura bitters	dash	dash	4 dashes	8 dashes
Garnish – Pineapple & cherry	A fresh fruit garnish is what I prefer to use, although my husband prefers maraschino cherries. More red dye #10 for my Mennonite lad!