Singapore Sling
The Singapore Sling was created by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore around 1915. It was built as a drink a woman could order in public without the social discomfort that accompanied ordering spirits directly, the pink colour and fruit-forward character providing a degree of cover that a straight gin drink would not have offered in that era. The cover worked. The drink outlasted the social conditions that made it necessary by more than a century. The recipe that circulated for decades after Ngiam's original was disputed, diluted, and in many cases replaced entirely by a pre-mixed version served at the Raffles Long Bar itself. The version documented here works from the most credible reconstruction: gin, Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Bénédictine, grenadine, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice and Angostura bitters. It is a considerably more interesting drink than the commercial versions carrying the same name. Fresh pineapple juice is not optional. Tinned juice produces a flat, artificially sweet result the rest of the ingredients cannot compensate for.
Glassware: Sling Glass
Garnish: Pineapple Wedge Luxardo and Maraschino Cherry
Ingredients
30ml
A clean London Dry with enough juniper backbone to hold its own across the volume of pineapple juice and Cherry Heering.
15ml
Cherry Heering is the benchmark. Brings dark cherry, chocolate, and spice that cheaper cherry liqueurs cannot replicate in this structure.
7.5ml
Provides clean orange character and sweetness. Do not substitute with a cheaper triple sec as it will make the drink taste synthetic.
7.5ml
Adds herbal complexity and honey warmth that sits underneath the fruit without announcing itself. There is no direct substitute.
10ml
Use a quality grenadine made from real pomegranate. Cheap grenadine is artificially coloured sugar syrup and will flatten the drink.
120ml
Juiced immediately before building. Tinned or carton pineapple juice produces a flat, sweet result the other ingredients cannot rescue.
15ml
Squeezed immediately before use. Provides the acid cut that keeps the drink from becoming cloying across its full volume.
1 dash
A single dash ties the spice and fruit elements together. More than one and the bitterness becomes intrusive in a drink this fruit-forward.
Instructions
Juice a fresh pineapple immediately before building the drink.
Squeeze lime juice immediately before building.
Add gin, Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Bénédictine, grenadine, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, and Angostura bitters to a shaker.
Add a scoop of cubed ice and shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds.
Fill a sling glass or highball with fresh cubed ice.
Strain the cocktail over the ice.
Garnish with a fresh pineapple slice and a Luxardo Maraschino Cherry on the rim.
Serve immediately with a straw.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; method ours). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
The volume of pineapple juice means every other ingredient must be measured precisely. The Cointreau and Bénédictine at 7.5ml each are not afterthoughts, they are structural, and reducing either to simplify the build produces a noticeably less interesting drink. Measure everything, use fresh juice, and the complexity takes care of itself. One dash of Angostura, not two. In a drink this fruit-forward a second dash reads as intrusive bitterness rather than as seasoning, and it flattens the Cherry Heering underneath it. Juice the pineapple fresh, and juice more than you need. A single fruit yields considerably more than this recipe requires, the remainder keeps for about a day refrigerated, and having it on hand is the difference between making this drink once and making it again.
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Ngiam Tong Boon worked as a bartender at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore in the early years of the twentieth century. The drink he created around 1915 was built to a specific social purpose: to give women a means of drinking in public that did not carry the associations of ordering spirits directly. The pink colour, the fruit character, and the long format provided the necessary cover. The drink was an immediate success and became synonymous with the hotel that served it.
The recipe that followed Ngiam's original into the world was subject to considerable variation, gradual simplification, and eventual replacement by a commercially premixed version that the Raffles Long Bar began serving to the volume of tourists the drink's reputation attracted. The premix bears the name. It does not bear much resemblance to the drink that earned it.
The Structure
The Singapore Sling is a long drink built on a gin base with a layered modifier structure that sets it apart from simpler slings. Cherry Heering provides dark fruit and spice. Cointreau provides orange brightness and sweetness. Bénédictine provides herbal depth and honey warmth. Grenadine provides colour and a soft pomegranate note. Fresh pineapple juice provides the primary volume and the tropical character that defines the drink. Fresh lime juice provides the acid that keeps all of that sweetness in check.
Each modifier is present in a relatively small volume. None of them dominates individually. Together they produce a drink that tastes like considerably more than the sum of its parts, which is the signature of a well-constructed long cocktail.
The Pineapple Juice Question
Fresh pineapple juice is not a premium option in this drink. It is the structural foundation. Pineapple juice from a tin or carton is heat-treated, which destroys the enzymes and volatile aromatics that give fresh pineapple its character. What remains is a flat, artificially sweet liquid that no amount of quality gin or Cherry Heering can compensate for. A single fresh pineapple yields considerably more juice than this recipe requires and the remainder keeps well in the refrigerator for twenty-four hours. Juice it fresh and use it immediately.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard and strained over fresh ice in a sling glass or highball, with pineapple and cherry on the rim and a straw to reach the bottom of the glass. This is a warm weather drink by temperament, long enough to drink slowly and complex enough to reward the time it takes. The Raffles Hotel context is not incidental to how it is best consumed. It is a drink that asks for a certain amount of leisure. Give it that and it performs accordingly.
The Long Bar Premix
The Raffles Long Bar serves a premixed Singapore Sling and has done for decades, which is the single largest reason the drink's reputation is worse than it deserves.
The commercial pressure is real. The bar receives an enormous volume of visitors who have come specifically to order the drink at its birthplace, and hand-building a nine-component cocktail with fresh pineapple juice at that rate is not practical. The premix bears the name and carries the association. It does not much resemble what Ngiam made.
That gap is worth knowing before ordering one on a trip, and worth remembering when somebody says they have tried a Singapore Sling and did not like it. Most people who say that have had the premix, which is a sweet pink drink with very little going on underneath.
The Spirit
GinA flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Singapore Sling?
A long gin drink created by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Long Bar around 1915: gin, Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Bénédictine, grenadine, fresh pineapple and lime juice, and a dash of Angostura. Nine components in a long glass, which is unusually complex for a drink of that era.
Why was it built pink and fruit-forward?
Ngiam designed it so a woman could drink in public without the discomfort of ordering spirits directly; the colour, fruit and long format gave cover a straight gin drink would not. The cover outlasted the conditions that required it.
Can I use tinned pineapple juice?
No. Tinned or carton juice is heat-treated, which destroys the enzymes and volatile aromatics, leaving a flat and artificially sweet liquid the other ingredients cannot compensate for. There is 120ml of it in the glass, so it is the largest single decision in the build.
Master the Techniques
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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