Singapore Sling - How 2 Make the Classic Tiki Drink & the History Behind It (Smuggler's Cove recipe)
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- How to make the Singapore Sling, the classic cocktail made with Gin, Cherry Liqueur, Benedictine, Simple Syrup, Lemon Juice, Soda Water, Aromatic Bitters, Orange Bitters and, optionally, a lemon wheel, mint and a Maraschino Cherry for garnish. This drink was adopted as a Tiki standard and my favorite recipe comes from the handbook for the recently tikified, Smuggler’s Cove.
The most popular rumor about this drink was that it was created in 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. This creation was also supposed to be made with pineapple juice. However, most of this story was embellished or outright invented by the Raffles Hotel manager from the 1970’s. The only part of the story that was confirmable was that Ngiam worked at Raffles around the turn-of-the-century.
The real story of this drink traces back to the 19th century. A Sling is a drink category that, according to David Wondrich began an American creation, but in English hands became more of a punch, which by the mid-to-late 1800’s became the standard definition of a Sling. And a sling English bartenders loved to experiment with throughout the British Empire was the Gin Sling.
In Singapore (part of the Straits Settlement at the time), what would later become known at the Straits Sling or-more commonly-the Singapore Sling, was originally just referred to as the Gin Sling. Accounts of Singapore’s Gin Sling started popping up in newspaper accounts in 1897, but it was clear that they had firmly been established as part of the drinking scene by that time.
The recipe appeared in print in 1913, 1922 and then in several books throughout the 1930’s. The recipes from the 30’s were all in the same ballpark measurement and ingredient-wise. This was the recipe that Donn Beach put on his menu when he established the first tiki bar, Don the Beachcomber. He had discovered the drink on his travels through the pacific in the mid-1920’s.
Even though the drink pre-dates Tiki, it was definitely a staple of a lot of tiki menus. But it makes sense because it was built in the style of a punch, much like a lot of Donn’s original drinks were and just like Donn’s drinks, this one was composed of some exciting and exotic flavors.
I R&D’ed this drink pretty extensively. I made half a dozen Singapore Slings from various recipes and compared them side-by-side, including one of the pineapple juice recipes. The hands-down winner was the Smuggler’s Cove recipe, which did not stray too far from the 1930’s recipes. It just added some simple syrup (or in their case rich simple syrup, but 1:1 syrup was perfect for me) to help round off some of the more tart edges of the citrus and it works like a charm.
As for the garnish, it’s really up to you. I used a lemon wheel, cherry and mint, but play around with it and figure out what works best for you. It’s not like Three Dots & a Dash ( • Three Dots and a Dash ... ) or the Navy Grog ( • Navy Grog - How to Mak... ), where the garnish is central to the presentation, but it’s definitely something to play around with to make the drink more exotic. Okole Maluna!
Recipe:
1.5 oz (45ml) Gin
0.5 oz (15ml) Cherry Liqueur
0.25 oz (7ml) Benedictine
0.25 oz (7ml) Simple Syrup
0.75 oz (22ml) Lemon Juice
1 dash Aromatic Bitters
1 dash Orange Bitters
2 oz Soda Water
garnish Lemon Wheel, Mint, Maraschino Cherry (optional)
Add ice and soda to the Collins glass. Shake the rest of the ingredients with ice cubes. Strain into the glass. Add garnishes and straw.
Music:
Asian Celebration 1 & 3 by Bo Järpehag
via Epidemic Sound
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Featured in this Episode:
Ford’s Gin
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Combier Rouge Cherry Liqueur
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Benedictine
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Regan’s Orange Bitters
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Angostura Bitters
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Soda Siphon
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Maraschino Cherries
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Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry
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Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari 10th Anniversary Edition by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry
bit.ly/2H1zhgJ
Imbibe! by David Wondrich
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Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh
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Smuggler's Cove by Martin & Rebecca Cate
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Bar Tools:
Schott Zwiesel Collins Glasses
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Cocktail Pick (Pineapple)
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Leopold Jigger
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Usagi Cobbler Shaker
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Bamboo Straw
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Citrus Juicer (Lemon)
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Cutting Board
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Small Knife
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#SingaporeSling #Tiki #SmugglersCove
Great recipe and history lesson as usual -- I'll be making this one tonight. That said, I'm curious about why you pour the soda water into the glass before the rest of the cocktail? Don't you lose carbonation? I would assume that you'd treat it like a highball with the soda water going in last. Thanks in advance!
I'm wondering the same thing. Is it to try to avoid the need to stir it all together? Does it really mix properly?
Here's a great explanation from Fredric Yarm (aka Cocktail Virgin), "I put soda in first followed by the drink and then the ice. The reason is that if you put the drink in first and then the soda water (regardless of when you add the ice), the soda water will float and make a two-toned drink. Stirring it will help mix it but will also kill of a bit of the carbonation. Straining a heavier drink (sugar etc. gives it density) over soda water allows for gentle mixing with no stirring. Drinks go flat (or lightly carbonated) before you're done drinking them, so why accelerate that process."
Thanks for the reply! So it sounds like this rule could easily apply to highballs as well, as I too have encountered the problem of stirring to mix but killing the carbonation in the process.
Yeah, it's great.
Another way to do this is to add the soda/sparkling beverage to the shaker AFTER you're done shaking the other ingredients, then single straining slowly into the ice-filled glass. Advantages: the final pour gently mixes sparkling with non-sparkling portions without the need to stir, no unwanted layering happens, carbonation is maintained, and your soda doesn't melt the ice in your glass (though you could get around this by adding ice last, but that has other issues...). Disadvantages: you need to single strain (double straining with a fine mesh strainer gives too many nucleation sites for bubbles to pop on) so if the drink has fresh fruit juice or lots of ice chips you will get that in your drink too, and one could argue that even with single straining through a hawthorne and the final pour you lose some carbonation (though I think it's negligible).
Honestly, I think as long as you never "top off" a cocktail with sparkling whatever, you're good in my book. I hate that...you either force your guest to stir it themselves, or they get a straight shot of the non-sparkling contents that are at the bottom of the glass (if using a straw)/straight shot of only sparkling beverage from the top of the glass (if not using a straw). In my strong opinion, the first sip should be as good as the last, +/- dilution (unless you're trying to have the drink's taste evolve over time, in which case, be my guest).
I have a lifelong passion for this drink. It's the White Whale of mixology. We all have our ideal of what a Singapore Sling is, but nobody can agree on a recipe.
For sure. Everyone has their favorite way of doing it. But that's also part of the fun.
I like your bourgeois UA-cam icon, by the way.
Man, you are the boss of story tellers. I appreciate the research and effort to put into your videos. Cheers!
Thanks. The last few videos have had some heavy lifting on research and coming up with visuals for them. Glad to hear it paid off for you. I appreciate the support. Cheers!
Your productions are top notch. Adding the historical references make the drinks much more exciting and intriguing. The subtle humor is brilliant. Well done...I can't get enough!
Thank you. I'm glad to hear you like them so well. Cheers!
Love how you go into detail about the history of the drink. A great video.
Thanks. Glad you dug it.
I love your channel. It is made up of 2 of my favorite things. Cocktails and documentaries. Absolutely love your work here on UA-cam and your cocktails.
Cheers, -J.O.
Thanks. Glad you like both the drinks and the history. I know some people would really only like me to do one or the other. Haha.
Excellent history lesson
Cheers! Glad you liked it.
I asked for this one some time ago, and you said it was on the list. It really was and as usual it looks absolutely amazing! The production value of these videos is nothing short of impressive. Whenever you have the time keep gracing us with your top class work 🙏
Glad you liked it. Thank you for your kind words. Hope it was worth the wait. Cheers!
If you visit the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore they trace the history of the Singapore Sling from a generic “Sling” punch to the Long Bar version. You can order the earlier iterations/versions at the Long Bar. Honestly, I found some of the earlier Slings to be tastier than the Raffles’ Singapore Sling version.
I'm a new subscriber...loving your channel. The history lessons are as great as the recipes, and I love the humor. This history of Singapore Sling is an eyeopener. Cheers
Excellent! Glad you dug it.
A fascinating and exotic tale. I appreciate you putting this together. My taste for Singapore Slings came from my experience drinking one, two and at most three Slings in the original Raffles Long Bar. I actually stayed 3 or 4 nights at Raffles, wallowed in the tropical fruits & sausages breakfast under the awning with caged birdsong and soaked up the faded colonial charm along with the Slings. I became interested in the history of Raffles and bought a couple of books that were on offer there. One of them contained what was claimed to be the recipe that they served at the hotel.
The recipe I have is called 'Singapore Gin Sling' and it's: ½ jigger fresh Lemon/fresh Lime Juice, ¼ jigger Grenadine Syrup, 3 jiggers Pineapple Juice, 1 drop Angostura Bitters, 1 dash Benedictine Dom, 1 dash Cointreau, ½ jigger Peter Heering Cherry, 1½ jiggers Beefeaters Gin. In a cocktail shaker, shake gently, strain into a tumbler, garnish with pineapple & a cherry, and poke a straw into the glass to serve.
Since this seemed a little sweeter & slightly less alcoholic than what I had actually been served at the long bar during several visits to Singapore, I always add an extra half jigger each of Gin and fresh Lemon/Lime to the above recipe. I also add a lot of ice to the hurricane glass to ensure it's very well chilled. I would also recommend not drinking it immediately and allowing some of the ice to melt and balance up the flavour. Most refreshing in the shade on a hot summers day.
Thanks. Glad to hear you dug the video.
Wow, that's a lot of pineapple juice. Good call on re-tooling it with some more citrus and gin. Kind of making it a double. Haha.
Let me know if you end up giving this recipe a whirl. Cheers!
I will certainly try your recipe next summer (it's currently winter in NZ and my Limes are a hazy shade of yellow). I also discovered this 'official' recipe which is similar to mine: ua-cam.com/video/Vvhyk0RMWfk/v-deo.html IMO opinion Lemon is required to cut the sweetness but I will also try this one too :-) Shaking with ice is also what I do to bring the temp down as much as possible. I note that the new Raffles have their own special Sling glasses now. It's a Sling revolution!
Thanks for the history, you should have a million subscribers, at least.
Haha. One day...
I really enjoy your videos!!!! I love the history behind the drink!! and your voice is seriously captivating.
Thanks for the love! Cheers!
You're back! I love these videos! You deserve way more subs, your videos are so good. These are like Business Casual for cocktails!
Haha. The button-up-shirt-with-no-tie of cocktail videos?
Hahah no your thinking of Cocktail chemistry. He is okay i guess, not nearly as good as you tho. You should look up the account, they talk about the history of (famous) businesses.
Haha. Cool. I'll have to check that out.
I love the channel, informative and easy to watch. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching. Glad you dug it.
Finally a new video! Loving the research on this one. I have only tried the Raffles version until today, which I actually do like. Even though it is quite sweet. Definitely giving this dryer Smuggler's Cove recipe a shot soon. Cheers!
Nice. Let me know how it turns out.
I mentioned this on another comment, but I like the Pineapple recipe too. However, it usually feels like it wants to be made with rum instead of gin. Someone suggested replacing the gin with Demerara rum, which sounded like a good idea. Cheers!
Hottest day of the year so far in germany - and the Singapore Sling was a great choice. Really liking the citrus balance, the Gin and Cherry Heering nicely coming through, not drowned in the pineapple juice. Very refreshing, somewhat reminds me of the Suffering Bastard, even though the recipes are quite different. May try a tad mor Benedectine next time for some extra funk.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the similarity to Suffering Bastard. They're both surprisingly not shy about the flavor of gin. They're great.
Great video as always. Never disappoints.
Thanks for the love. Glad you liked it.
Been wondering about this one for a while! Another fantastic video! Thanks!
Yeah, it was a long time coming. Thanks for your patience. I'm glad you liked it. Cheers!
Great video, got me to subscribe. I do like to find new stuff to drink.
Great! Welcome aboard! This was a fun one.
Very good narration
Cheers!
Another masterpiece. Well done!
Great to hear. Cheers!
Excellent video sir! Love the history lesson, as always. I'll be giving this a try soon; I love old gin drinks and I don't recall ever having one before. Cheers!
Nice. Let me know how it turns out.
yessss. Always excited to see your videos in my sub box
Cheers!
Ahh, yes! Just love this video.
Glad you dug it.
Did a slight variation, lime juice instead of lemon and cherry brandy instead of a liqueur because that's what I have on hand right now. Gonna try it again with Heering Cherry Liqueur when my bottle arrives.
Interesting. How'd the modified version turn out?
It was alright. I can't for the life of me remember what drinks I was going to use Cherry Brandy for, did you do any videos with it maybe? But for some reason I bought 2 different bottles of it and when my Heering ran out I started subbing in the brandy for a few drinks. One of my favorites is Blood & Sand, that doesn't work that well with cherry brandy either.
Subbing it for Cognac-style Brandy might be a good idea. Maybe Pisco drinks would be interesting too.
I thought this was just a rumor but I literally just found your video in my subscription feed but not in my activity feed. Even though I hit the bell and have you set to “all notifications”
Just tested it by turning notifications off and on but your video still hasn’t shown up in my activity feed.
Damn. Sounds like a UA-cam error. Glad you found it.
Very interesting. As a bar professional, I always use pineapple in my recipe but just taper it back a lot.
I like the Pineapple version. I just prefer this one. And it's odd, I always feel like the Pineapple version wants to be made with rum. 😉👍
Thanks for the video
Glad you liked it.
New sub. I just got the Death and Co. book which gives a totally different recipe with lime juice, pineapple juice, and no soda water. I guess both are just different variations, but I'm split cuz I see both coming from legitimate backgrounds
Welcome! Glad you liked the video well enough to sub.I mean, they are both legit. If one tastes better to you, make that one. This recipe is closer to the 19th century recipe, but that doesn't mean it's better. This one is an adaptation as well. The oldest known recipe was equal parts gin, lime, benedictine and cherry liqueur, so it's not like the Smuggler's Cove recipe is a strict adaptation. I personally prefer SC's recipe over the pineapple juice recipe because I feel like the pineapple juice version wants to be made with rum, but if that one works better for you, don't let me stop you. Cheers!
Great video as usual! Just a quick question: I haven't been able to find Benedictine Dom where I live, but my local liquor store does carry Drambuie. I read somewhere online that they have similar flavor profiles. What are your thoughts, should I go out of my way to get Benedictine or will Drambuie suffice?
Try it. I'm sure it'll turn out pretty great. It's only a 0.25 oz, so you may be able to get it away with it.
They are pretty simalar, yeah, mostly because they both have honey as a major flavor profile. Benedictine is more floral and herbal on the taste to me and has a cognac base I think, while Drambuie has a scotch base. Should work fine as a substitute, I might have to try it myself.
Thanks for the quick answer! I'm going to try it out this weekend. Cheers!
Christian, I've never tried Benedictine straight, which is why I didn´t realize it had a honey taste. I figured it was drier and more bitter than Drambuie.
Nick, no, Benedictine is definitely sweet. The honey is highly flavored with herbs and spices, so it might not be the easiest flavor to pick out right away. Cheers!
We have a lot of the same equipment n glasses. I have these glasses too.... I'm not a creep I just use your recipes sometimes n noticed 😂
Nice! Great minds drink alike.
I've never tried one of these because I don't find any other uses for cherry liquer and dom benedictine and two extra bottles for one drink is more than my budget allows. I loved the video though. Any reason you don't use the original Heering Cherry?
Cherry Heering is fine. It's just that I was turned onto the Combier Cherry when I was researching the Scotch Lodge video and fell in love with it. It just became my go-to Cherry Liqueur.
In terms of what else to do with Cherry Liqueur and Benedictine, here are some other excellent uses for them.
Cherry: ua-cam.com/play/PLw3w-GljemenbZYz6bAdMs6EUVIQlKOD3.html
Benedictine: ua-cam.com/play/PLw3w-GljemelcPHDQWXD4LT7FQZ5obrZ9.html
YES!!!
Haha. Hope it was worth the hype. 😉👍
Gooooood
Cheers! 🥂
Only bad thing about finishing one of these.....figuring out what drink you'll cover next.
Haha. Got a fun one up next. A really exciting, low-ABV, Negroni-esque modern drink.
has anyone listened to this guy at half speed yet?
it sounds like he drank a few of these already
wait.....what if he records these drunk then speeds it up in editing to make him sound sober?
Or maybe he speaks faster when he records and slows it down in post. The possibilities are endless.
Is maraschino liquor a good substitute for cherry herring?
Yakntoro Udoumoh no it's not. Marashino liqueur has a dry taste. Cherry herring is more on the sweet side. Try luxardo sangue morlacco as a substitute.
2 very different tastes. I would not suggest switching them out. Similar to orgeat and amaretto
Maraschino is not the same thing unfortunately. It might make for an interesting drink, but it won't be the same. What you want for this drink is Cherry Herring, Combier Rouge, Leopold Bros Tart Cherry Liqueur, Luxardo Cherry Liqueur, Cherry Kijafa, or something like that.
www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1015780
www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1056776
www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1144375
www.totalwine.com/liqueurs-cordials-schnapps/fruit/cherry/luxardo-cherry-liqueur/p/106527750-1
www.totalwine.com/dessert-fortified-wine/aperitif/cherry-kijafa/p/2663750-1
Had one with maraschino and the one as follows in the video w/ cherry liqueur
Suggestion: avoid maraschino use cherry liqueur
How do you only have 17k followers
You tell me. Haha. Thank you for the support. Share the video and tell your friends. Cheers!
@@DistinguishedSpirits well I just discovered you and I stayed up til 5am watching your vids! I love the history lesson with it. And the video production is fantastic. Keep it up homie!
Haha. If I can only deprive one person of sleep, my job here is done. Cheers!
Hi can you do hot buttered rum please.
Maybe one day...
Distinguished Spirits thanks 😁
Next video do the hurricane!
It won't be next, but it's on the docket. I have the feeling the research is going to be involved.
Is the Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur acceptable since its clear in color? Does it change the taste?
It might be good, but it will taste really really different, as Maraschino liqueur doesn't taste anything like cherry liqueur.
where is pineapple juice?
Haha. Not in this one. There are dozens of variations on this drink.