Gin

Singapore Sling

Name: Singapore Sling
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Hurricane

The 1915 Raffles Long Bar gin sling, cherry liqueur, pineapple, and Benedictine in a tropical pour.

gin classic pre-tiki shaken pineapple cherry

Ingredients

fresh pineapple juice (4 oz)
fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
grenadine (0.33 oz)
Angostura bitters (1 dash)
cherry liqueur (0.5 oz)
Cointreau (0.25 oz)
Benedictine (0.25 oz)
gin (1 oz)
pineapple slice (1)
maraschino cherry (1)

Ngiam Tong Boon's handwritten original was lost in the 1930s. The Raffles Long Bar's current official version is one of several competing provenance narratives, the "Ngiam's nephew recovered it in the 1970s" story circulated by Raffles is contradicted by other sources (Cate & Cate, Wikipedia), which describe the recovered spec as a 1930s visitor's notebook copy taken from a bar coaster.¹^,² Whether the 1915 drink resembled the modern pineapple-and-cherry-Heering version is contested, pre-war references describe a much simpler gin-and-cherry-brandy sling, and the tropical, juice-heavy formulation is a postwar reformulation.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Tanqueray or Beefeater for the gin; Cherry Heering for the cherry liqueur (canonical and non-negotiable); Bénédictine D.O.M.; Cointreau; BG Reynolds or Small Hand Foods grenadine. Economical: Gordon's or Bombay Dry; Cherry Heering remains the canonical pick (no good substitute); Combier Triple Sec; Liber & Co. or Jack Rudy grenadine.

Instructions

In a shaker combine fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, grenadine, Angostura bitters, cherry liqueur, Cointreau, Benedictine, and gin.
Shake hard with ice and strain into an ice-filled hurricane glass or tall sling glass.
Garnish with a pineapple slice and a maraschino cherry.

Sources

Raffles Hotel, "How the Singapore Sling Conquered the World." https://www.raffles.com/magazine/singapore/How-the-Singapore-Sling-conquered-the-world-/ (accessed 2026-05-03), the Raffles Long Bar's own narrative crediting Ngiam Tong Boon (1915) and explaining the 1930s loss / 1970s nephew-recovered spec. ↩
Wondrich, Imbibe! (2007), Singapore Sling discussion, corroborates the lost-original story and the postwar reformulation history. ↩
Difford's Guide, "Singapore Sling." https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1571/singapore-sling (accessed 2026-05-03), surveys the multiple competing pre-war and postwar specs and notes the tropical, juice-forward modern recipe is not a simple recovery of the 1915 original. ↩