Recipe
- 1.5oz gin (I used Tanqueray London Dry Gin)
- .75oz lemon juice
- .5oz Cherry Heering
- .25oz Benedictine liqueur
- .25oz 2:1 sugar syrup (or double if using 1:1 simple syrup)
- Dash of Angostura bitters
- Dash of orange bitters (Regans’)
- 2oz sparkling water
Pour sparkling water into glass and fill with crushed ice. Shake all other ingredients with ice and strain into the other glass. Stir to combine.
About
Despite the fact we’re far from getting any snow here in San Francisco (only rain), I’m happily whippin up some drinks at home for the @TikiTheSnowAway event. This here is the Singapore Sling, a very popular gin based tropical drink that actually pre-dates the tiki era of the mid 20th century. I’ve been wanting to make this for a while (and in fact is part of the reason why I keep mini bottles of Cherry Heering around), and it certainly does not disappoint.
The Singapore Sling was believed to be created in the early 1900s at a hotel bar in Singapore. These days, it’s largely associated with tiki due to Trader Vic’s inclusion of the cocktail on the menus of his famous tiki bars and recipe books. The original recipe is much debated, but I went with the Smuggler’s Cove version, which was absolutely delicious and well balanced! I actually don’t have a huge sweet tooth when it comes to cocktails and found this one just the right level of sweetness and brilliant with the herbal notes from the gin, Benedictine, and bitters. The recipe reads a bit differently from many more traditional “tiki drinks” (rums, lime, sugar, fruits), but one sip of this and the combination will no doubt bring paradise one step closer.