Singapore Sling
Gin, Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Bénédictine, pineapple, lime, and bitters — Raffles Hotel, c. 1915.
The Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail created by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar of Raffles Hotel in Singapore, documented around 1915. The IBA recipe combines gin, cherry liqueur (Cherry Heering), Cointreau, Bénédictine DOM, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, grenadine, and Angostura bitters. It is among the most complex classic cocktails by ingredient count. The original formula is documented in Raffles Hotel records; variations proliferated over the 20th century, and reconstructed recipes vary somewhat. The drink is synonymous with Raffles Hotel and Southeast Asian colonial-era bar culture.
Quick facts
- Type
- Classic Recipe
- Base spirits
- gin, cherry heering, cointreau, benedictine
- Era
- 1915–present
- Origin
- Raffles Hotel, Singapore
- Glass
- highball
- IBA listed
- Yes — Official IBA cocktail
Ngiam Tong Boon and the Raffles Long Bar
Ngiam Tong Boon (c. 1873–1954) was a Hainanese Chinese bartender who worked at Raffles Hotel's Long Bar from approximately 1897. The Singapore Sling is documented as his creation around 1915, though Raffles Hotel's own records place the date variously between 1910 and 1922. The earliest documented recipe — recorded from Ngiam Tong Boon's own notebook, reportedly found by the hotel in the 1970s — specified gin, Bénédictine, cherry brandy, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine, and bitters. Pineapple juice was added to the formula, making the drink unusual for the era in its use of fresh tropical fruit juice. Raffles Hotel has marketed the Singapore Sling as its signature drink since the colonial period, and the Long Bar still serves a version of it today.
Cherry Heering and Bénédictine
Two distinctive modifiers define the Singapore Sling's character. Cherry Heering (or Peter Heering) is a Danish cherry liqueur produced from Stevns cherries since 1818, with a deep red colour and sweet-tart cherry flavour with almond notes from the cherry pits. It provides both the pink colour and cherry-almond flavour that are central to the drink. Bénédictine DOM is a French herbal liqueur produced since 1863 at the Fécamp abbey (now a commercial distillery), with a complex herbal and spice profile (27 plants and spices including angelica, hyssop, and lemon balm). The combination of Cherry Heering, Bénédictine, gin, and tropical pineapple produces one of the most aromatic structures in classic cocktail history.
Sources & further reading (1)
- encyclopedia — accessed 2026-05-08
Frequently asked questions
What is the relationship between the Singapore Sling and the Straits Sling?
The Straits Sling is an earlier formula documented in Robert Vermeire's 1922 *Cocktails: How to Mix Them*: gin, Bénédictine, cherry brandy, fresh lemon juice, orange bitters, and Angostura bitters, without pineapple juice or grenadine. It is considered a precursor to the Singapore Sling rather than the same recipe. Cocktail historian David Wondrich notes that the documented Raffles formula Ngiam Tong Boon's notebook version) uses pineapple juice; the Straits Sling does not.
Why do modern Singapore Sling recipes vary so much?
The original formula was not widely published in a standardised form before the Raffles notebook discovery in the 1970s, and during the intervening decades, bartenders at Raffles and elsewhere improvised variants. Commercial production at Raffles uses a premixed base for volume service, which diverges from the craft recipe. The IBA standardised version (2011) specifies Cherry Heering, Cointreau, Bénédictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine, Angostura bitters, and a garnish. Individual recipes vary in proportions and in cherry liqueur choice.