081 - Who makes the best Singapore Sling?
081 - Singapore 
Who makes the best Singapore Sling in Singapore? The Singapore Sling is a famous alcoholic drink served in Singapore. We test two hotel versions for you.
Podsafe music this week is "Moon Shy" by Washington DC band Lejune and "Ain’t got love" by Todd Carey.
At the risk of upsetting the international drinking community, we explore this week which bar makes the “best” Singapore Sling in Singapore.
The history of the Singapore Sling is still disputed today. No one disputes who was the originator of the drink, Hainanese Bar Captain Ngiam Tong Boon (嚴崇文), from the Raffles Hotel.
What is debated is what was really in the original recipe and when was it actually made?
Historians and the evidence available suggest that the drink was originally invented somewhere in the period 1908 to 1920. Early books on cocktails and drinks from the 1920 to 1930 period suggest a 1914 to 1915 period.
The biggest debate is what was in the original drink. Apparently the original recipe was lost and forgotten sometime in the 1930’s, so the drink that they serve at the Long Bar today is based on memories of former bartenders and some written notes that they were able to discover. A fine debate of the versions and analysis of the drink compositions can be downloaded here from Ted Haigh. Another site is Thinking Bartender.
Here is the receipe that is offered by the bar for all guests. Note that this is NOT what they serve.
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Here is the receipe that is offered by the bar for all guests. Note that this is NOT what they serve. This is the thumbnail of a scanned in image of a recipe card straight from the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. To make this not only more readable, but also to allow the text to be copied to your clipboard for storage we’ve reproduced the menu below in HTML. |
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Raffles Long Bar Singapore Sling
Guest on our show from Raffles Hotel is the Resident Historian Mr Leslie Danker. He tells us about Raffles, the Singapore Sling inventer, Ngiam Tong Boon and history of the Long Bar.
The Long Bar is designed in the style of the old Malaysian plantations of the 1920’s, with many drawings of flapper girls and young men in their dinner suits and top hats. You can easily visualise Noel Coward in a smoking jacket, tinkling the ivories of the piano, while he sings songs about mad dogs and Englishmen.
Suspended from the ceiling are rows of wicker fans attached to motorized contraptions that turn a pulley and cause the fans to sway. It’s an ingenious early pre-air conditioning method that wafts a cool breeze over you as you sip your drink. When Raffles was built in the 1800’s these fans would have been pulled by a low caste punkah-wallah - "punkah" meaning portable fan, and "wallah" meaning a "doer," so a punkah-wallah is the servant who would sit outside the bar and pull the rope up and down to create the fanned movement of air.
In the bar there are bowls of monkey nuts and tradition dictates you drop the shells on the floor much like the planters did when they arrived from the rubber plantations of Malaysia. Sparrows fly in from the balcony outside and sit on the floor to eat the shells, wherever you walk there is a fabulous crunching sound, so don’t be prudish and just crush away.
Order your Singapore Sling at the bar (about S$20+++).
Much to many tourists horror the drinks are a pre-mix and have to be poured via means of a plastic jug. We suggest you don’t look! rather, soak up the ambiance of the Long Bar because when you are at Raffles you leave the stress and bustle of the City State at the doors of this famous hotel.
Where: Long Bar at Raffles Hotel Singapore 1 Beach Road Singapore 189673 Tel: +65 63371886
Service: Excellent (5/5)
Singapore Sling alcoholic punch: Average (3/5)
Ambiance: Good (4/5)
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore Sling
We visit the exclusive and beautiful Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore and meet with the General Manager, Mr Appelbaum, who shares with us his views and how he runs the flagship Shangri-La hotel.
The Shangri-La is a unique chain and modelled their design and approach on the novel "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton who wrote about a fictional utopian lamasery high in the mountains of Tibet.
To read the entire text of Lost Horizon, click here.
One of the features of all Shangri-La hotels is the expansive and cavernous foyers of each hotel which serve as the meeting place, focal point and various hotel functional aspects. Shangri-La Singapore is no exception!
To visit, dine or stay at Shangri-La Singapore visit their web site here or call +65 6737 3644.
But our journey was to test their version of the Singapore Sling!
We visited the restaurant BLU on Level 24. BLU has French-inspired contemporary cuisine, premium wines and champagnes. Michael our barman mixed our drink (no pre-mix used here) and it was stronger than Raffles.
Only drawback was that BLU do not use the slightly sweeter and heavier brandy based Herrings Cherry Brandy. In our drink, BLU used Bols Cherry Brandy Liqueur which tends to have a slightly more almond flavour.
But the views of Singapore and the decor of this modern restaurant certainly added to the mood. A great drink but would be interesting to see their mix with Herrings instead.
Price per drink about S$23+++
Where: BLU restaurant +65 6213 4598 at Shangri-La Singapore. 22 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258350
Service: Good (4/5)
Singapore Sling alcoholic punch: Good (4/5)
Ambiance: Average
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
You only tested two - so you found the better one, not the best one!