Shirley Temple
A Shirley Temple is an alcohol-free drink of ginger ale and grenadine: 150ml ginger ale in an ice-filled highball, with 15ml grenadine poured in last so it sinks, and a maraschino cherry on top. A squeeze of lime is optional and makes it less sweet. There is no alcohol in it. Tasting Table, a secondary source, lists the Brown Derby, Chasen’s and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel among the places that claim it. NPR quotes Temple placing its creation in the 1930s at the Brown Derby in Hollywood, and Tasting Table has her telling NPR in the mid-1980s that she thought such drinks saccharine and icky. Tasting Table dates her legal action against a bottled soda using her name to 1988. Her complaint is fair, and fixable. A ginger ale with some bite and a grenadine made from pomegranate turn it from a glass of sugar into a drink with ginger heat and tart fruit.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
150ml
Most of the drink. Choose one with a proper ginger bite; a soft, sweet ginger ale leaves the grenadine nothing to work against. The traditional recipe uses ginger ale, and lemon-lime soda is a later, sweeter swap.
15ml
Made from pomegranate juice and sugar, not glucose syrup and red colouring. Poured last, it sinks because it is denser than the ginger ale.
1
Optional. Squeezed over the top, it dries the finish without changing what the drink is.
Instructions
Fill a highball glass with ice.
Pour in the ginger ale.
Pour the grenadine slowly into the middle of the glass so it sinks.
If you want it less sweet, squeeze in a wedge of lime.
Top with a maraschino cherry and serve with a straw.
Our version
Recipes call for a splash of grenadine and rarely measure the ginger ale. Ours is 150ml ginger ale to 15ml grenadine, lime optional.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Pour the grenadine last and slowly, straight into the middle of the glass. It is denser than the ginger ale, so it sinks and settles, and the glass shades from red at the base to gold at the top. Stir it and the effect is gone, so hand over the straw and let the drinker do it. Choose the grenadine by its label. One made from pomegranate juice and sugar tastes of fruit and has some tartness. Many supermarket bottles are glucose syrup, acid and red colouring, which is where the drink’s name for sweetness comes from. The ginger ale matters as much: pick one with a proper bite. With a soft, sweet one, the whole drink is sugar.
Behind the Shirley Temple
Flavour Profile
A Drink for the Child at the Table
Tasting Table lists the Brown Derby, Chasen’s and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel among the places that claim the Shirley Temple, and NPR quotes Temple placing its creation in the 1930s at the Brown Derby. It contains no alcohol. The traditional recipe is ginger ale with a splash of grenadine and a maraschino cherry, and it is still the drink to make for anyone at the table who is not drinking.
Who Made It
NPR says several restaurants and hotels in Beverly Hills, and one in Hawaii, say they invented it for Temple, and Tasting Table names Chasen’s among the claimants. Temple herself told Scott Simon of NPR, in an interview Tasting Table dates to the mid-1980s, that the Brown Derby created it in the 1930s.
She also thought little of it. In the same interview, as Tasting Table quotes it, she called such drinks “saccharine, icky drinks”, and Tasting Table adds that bartenders and fans around the world kept insisting on treating her to one. Tasting Table dates her legal action to stop a bottled soda being sold under her name to 1988; NPR, citing Mental Floss, says she went to court twice to defend the drink.
Fixing the Sweetness
Temple’s complaint holds for the version most people get: a sweet ginger ale and a grenadine of glucose syrup and red colouring. Both can be fixed. A ginger ale with real heat gives the drink an edge, and a grenadine made from pomegranate juice tastes of tart fruit instead of plain sugar.
A squeeze of lime finishes the job for an older drinker. None of this changes the recipe; it uses better versions of the same three things.
The Grenadine Sinks
Grenadine is mostly sugar, and denser than ginger ale. Poured last, slowly and into the middle of the glass, it drops to the bottom and stays there until someone stirs. The same density gives the Tequila Sunrise its gradient.
The Shirley Temple and its relatives
Shirley Temple
- What is in it
- 150ml ginger ale, 15ml grenadine, a cherry
- Alcohol
- None
Shirley Temple with lime
- What is in it
- The same, with a lime wedge squeezed in
- Alcohol
- None
Dirty Shirley
- What is in it
- The same, with about 45ml vodka or rum
- Alcohol
- About 1.8 UK units
| Drink | What is in it | Alcohol |
|---|---|---|
| Shirley Temple | 150ml ginger ale, 15ml grenadine, a cherry | None |
| Shirley Temple with lime | The same, with a lime wedge squeezed in | None |
| Dirty Shirley | The same, with about 45ml vodka or rum | About 1.8 UK units |
Only the last row carries any units. The Shirley Temple itself is alcohol-free, which is the reason it exists.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Shirley Temple?
Does a Shirley Temple have alcohol in it?
Who invented the Shirley Temple?
Did Shirley Temple like the drink?
What is a Dirty Shirley?
Ginger ale or lemonade in a Shirley Temple?
Why does the grenadine sink?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Tasting Table, “Why Shirley Temple Didn’t Like The Drink That Was Named After Her” (secondary source (Lisa Curran Matte, 21 January 2024): a mid-1980s NPR interview with Scott Simon (“Those saccharine, icky drinks”); the Brown Derby, Chasen’s and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel claim the drink; 1988 legal action over Shirley T soda).
- NPR, “Thank You, Shirley Temple, For The Original ‘Mocktail’” (The Salt, 11 February 2014: competing claims; Temple on the Brown Derby in the 1930s; twice went to court (via Mental Floss)).
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026