Mr. Boston Official Bartender's and Party Guide

The Sling was a type of drink typically made with gin that was mixed with a bit of water, flavored, sweetened, and served cold. The Singapore Sling is a variation on this theme that was developed at the turn of the 20th century by Ngiam Tong Boon, a bartender at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. If you visit the hotel today, you can actually see the safe where Boon stored his cocktail books. The Singapore Sling was taken off the hotel menu at one point and nearly forgotten. When the hotel wanted to revive it some time later, the bartenders had to rack their brains to remember the recipe. As is common with older cocktails, few people agree on how to make this one. Different recipes call for different fruit juices and even different liqueurs. Whatever your school of thought, this is a sweet, complex cocktail that you're sure to love.