Singapore Sling with Gin, Cherry Heering, Fresh Pineapple Juice, Grenadine and Angostura Bitters

Understand the drink's construction: the Singapore Sling is a long drink in the tropical punch tradition — designed to be sipped slowly in a hot climate over a long evening. Its complexity comes from the layered liqueurs (Cherry Heering + Cointreau + Benedictine) balanced against fresh pineapple acid and sweetened with grenadine. The gin provides the structural backbone.

Ingredients

• The original Raffles Hotel recipe (established ca. 1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon):
• 30ml (1 oz) London Dry Gin — the spirit foundation
• 15ml (0.5 oz) Cherry Heering (Danish cherry liqueur — the original and non-negotiable; do not substitute maraschino)
• 7.5ml (0.25 oz) Cointreau (orange liqueur)
• 7.5ml (0.25 oz) Benedictine (herbal liqueur — adds the complex botanical depth)
• 120ml (4 oz) fresh pineapple juice (fresh-pressed only; packaged version lacks acidity and brightness)
• 15ml (0.5 oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
• 10ml (0.33 oz) grenadine (real pomegranate grenadine — not artificial red-dye sugar syrup)
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• Ice for shaking and serving
• For garnish:
• 1 pineapple wedge, 1 maraschino cherry, 1 paper parasol (mandatory, if you have one)

Instructions

1. Understand the drink's construction: the Singapore Sling is a long drink in the tropical punch tradition — designed to be sipped slowly in a hot climate over a long evening. Its complexity comes from the layered liqueurs (Cherry Heering + Cointreau + Benedictine) balanced against fresh pineapple acid and sweetened with grenadine. The gin provides the structural backbone.
2. Combine all ingredients in a shaker: add gin, Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Benedictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine, and Angostura bitters to a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice.
3. Shake vigorously for 12-15 seconds: the pineapple juice foams slightly when shaken — this is desirable. The cocktail should be frothy at the top from the pineapple protein.
4. Strain into a tall hurricane or highball glass over fresh ice. Do not use a Collins glass — the Singapore Sling requires volume and visual presence.
5. Garnish immediately: add a wedge of fresh pineapple hooked over the rim, a maraschino cherry speared on a pick, and a paper parasol if the occasion calls for it. The Singapore Sling is theatrical — it wants to be seen.
6. Taste: the drink should be simultaneously sweet, sour, boozy, and complex — with cherry, botanical herbs, pineapple, and citrus all distinct but harmonious. If it tastes flat, add more lime. If too sweet, add a touch more Angostura bitters.
7. Serve long and cold, with a straw for sipping. The Singapore Sling was created at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel around 1915. It was designed as a drink that respectable women could order in public — its pink color and fruit-forward taste made it appear socially acceptable in colonial Singapore, while still delivering a substantial amount of alcohol. It became the defining cocktail of Southeast Asia and remains one of the most recognizable drinks in the world.