#1  Ngiam Tong Boon, the bartender of Long Bar (Raffles Hotel) who created the Singapore Sling, hailed from Hainan Island, China. He had previously worked in Vietnam, Burma and onboard French ships before joining the Raffles. He was known to assist many of his kinsmen to get work in Singapore, particularly at the Long Bar. (Not to be confused with LongPlay, another bar we featured).

#2  When it was first created, the cocktail was known as the Singapore Gin Sling.

#3  Following the turn of the century in colonial Singapore, Raffles Singapore was the gathering place for the community and Long Bar was the watering hole. It was common to see the gentlemen nursing glasses of booze but unfortunately for the ladies, etiquette dictated they could not consume alcohol in public, and for the sake of public modesty, fruit juices and teas were their preferred beverage.

The talented Ngiam (above) thus saw a niche in the market and decided to create a cocktail that looked like a fruit juice, but was actually infused with gin and other liqueurs – so the ladies could drink it. So, it’s likely that Ngiam was the first rock star bartender by the ladies’ reckoning.

#4  And what’s with the peanuts on the floor at the Long Bar, where it all started? The earthy decor of the two-storey Long Bar is inspired by Malayan plantation life in the 1920s with the punkah wallah fans. Guests are invited to brush peanut shells on the table – a tribute to the British planters who used to patronise this watering hole. These planters enjoyed peanuts  while drinking in their plantations in Malaya, and they would throw peanut shells on the ground.

#5  The cocktail, known to be sweet, actually has 60ml of alcohol in it. The recipe has remained unchanged since it was created:

30 ml Gin
15 ml Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine, and a dash of Angostura bitters.

Put in a Boston shaker and shake it like a you know what. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and cherry. Cheers.

#6  Recipes published in articles about Raffles Hotel before the 1970s are significantly different from current recipes, and Singapore Slings drunk elsewhere in Singapore differ from the recipe used at Raffles Hotel.

#7  You can get a Singapore Sling onboard major international airlines such as Singapore Airlines.

#8  Pop fact: The New York Times describes the cocktail thus: “…the Singapore Sling is something more than a coolant. It’s a tour de force, a specimen of wit.”

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