Singapore Sling

Ngiam Tong Boon, Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, circa 1915. The drink was created to allow women to drink in public without social stigma (a pink, ostensibly fruit-based drink was more socially acceptable for women in colonial-era Singapore than spirits). The original recipe was lost and reconstructed from an imprecise record found in the bar's files. The current Raffles recipe was standardised in the 1970s.

The Singapore Sling is the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel's gift to the world — a pink, complex, colonial-era cocktail of gin, Heering Cherry Liqueur, Cointreau, Bénédictine, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, grenadine, and Angostura bitters that is both a historical artifact and a genuinely excellent drink when made correctly. Created by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon around 1915 at the Raffles Long Bar (then frequented by Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling), the original recipe was lost and the drink evolved through guesswork until a version of the recipe was discovered in the bar's records. The Singapore Sling is the most ingredient-heavy classic cocktail in the canon — eight components — and its complexity requires understanding why each element is there.

FOOD PAIRING: The Singapore Sling's tropical fruit and cherry-herbal complexity pairs with Asian, tropical, and fresh seafood preparations. Provenance 1000 pairings: chili crab (Singapore's national dish — the tropical sweetness complements the chili), chicken satay with peanut sauce (pineapple-peanut is a classic Southeast Asian combination), prawn toast, pineapple fried rice (the drink's pineapple mirrors the dish), and coconut laksa.