The cocktail scene in Singapore has won plaudits for being classy, edgy and idiosyncratic. This summer, an establishment in the city-state was crowned the best bar in the world, according to one ranking.
But this confluence of award-winning watering holes operates in the shadow of a drink invented in the city when it was a British colony: the Singapore Sling.
Just before 11 a.m. on a recent Friday, more than two dozen customers, mostly tourists, were in line to enter the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, purportedly the birthplace of the Sling in 1915. Many had come to imbibe the fruity, gin-infused cocktail and munch on peanuts before tossing the shells on the floor, as is tradition, even in a country that hands out hefty fines for littering and compels repeat offenders to clean up public spaces.
The cost, over 50 Singapore dollars, or about $40 after taxes, does not deter visitors. The bar says it sells around 1,000 servings a day, with nine out of 10 customers ordering it. They come from all over the world and are eager to hear stories from the bartenders about the Sling’s history.
“When you read travel articles about Singapore, they often list Long Bar as a must-do — you must come here and drink the Sling and toss peanut shells on the floor,” said Fan Sun Kai, 33, a visitor from Taiwan who was drinking it for the first time and concluded that it was “quite tasty.”
The Long Bar, located in the 139-year-old Raffles Hotel, is dominated by a spiral wooden staircase, where gunnysacks of groundnuts were placed. Overhead, mechanical punkah ceiling fans — historically operated by hand — created a gentle breeze. A poster outside the bar urged customers to “imbibe like a plantation owner in the early 1900s.”
A hand-cranked, cast-iron cocktail mixing machine, called the Sling Shaker, which can shake up to 18 Slings at once, was also a big draw for customers. Despite its vintage look, it was installed only in 2018 — and the shakers are sometimes not even filled when the machine is operating.
Kevin Appleby, 67, an Englishman who first visited the Long Bar with his wife, Helen, in 2002, wryly hailed the “marketing ploy” of the Sling. “They rip people off for lots of money for a drink that’s probably worth a couple of dollars,” he said. “But it’s the experience you’re paying for at the end of the day, to be in the Raffles Hotel and in the Long Bar.”
Referred to by the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and Anthony Bourdain, the Sling is typically taught in bartending school as a classic drink and frequently features in Singapore’s tourism campaigns.
According to Raffles Hotel’s official history, the Sling was invented in 1915 by the Hainanese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon, initially as a means for respectable ladies to disguise the fact that they were drinking in public. The cocktail’s ingredients include cherry liqueur, pineapple juice, Cointreau and gin. A life-size cutout of Ngiam now stands at the Long Bar entrance.
While other bars do serve the Sling, which is also available on Singapore Airlines, the Long Bar version uses customized ingredients alongside locally sourced ones, with the recipe last tweaked in 2018 to “suit the modern palate,” said Jesmine Hall, Raffles Singapore’s director of commercial marketing. The original version was said to be much sweeter.
Asked about criticism that the Sling amounts to little more than a tourist trap, Ms. Hall alluded to the drink’s global appeal, which has endured for a century. “Partaking in this rich cocktail experience at Long Bar, its place of origin, is partaking of cocktail history from 1915 that has placed Singapore on the global map and helped establish the local cocktail bar scene that flourishes today,” she said.
Within a four-mile radius of the Long Bar are establishments like Jigger & Pony, Nutmeg & Clove, Offtrack and Origin, which have consistently placed on shortlists of the world’s best bars. Another, Fura, was proclaimed the best bar in the world at a ceremony in New Orleans in July. (The Long Bar has also landed on some best-of lists.)
Most of these bars, where cocktails start from 25 Singapore dollars, or about $20, serve the Sling or their own version of it. The latter are among their best-sellers.
“The Singapore Sling seems to be held in a higher regard by people outside of Singapore than Singaporeans themselves,” said Joash Conceicao, the bar manager at Offtrack. “But I do enjoy that Singapore actually does have some classic cocktail history, despite people sometimes saying that Singapore lacks some culture or some deep history.”
Adam Bursik, Origin’s director of beverages, said there was a universality to the drink, since none of the ingredients originated from Singapore and were easily available.
The founder of Nutmeg & Clove, Colin Chia, noted that it was rare to have a country’s name on a drink and to be recognized worldwide as a classic cocktail. This is something to be proud of, “no matter what you think about it taste-wise,” and all Singapore bars should serve the Sling or a version of it, he said.
Over at Jigger & Pony, reservations are a must, as it is often packed out. The bar’s operations manager, Martin Villareal, said that when tourists and locals alike asked for recommendations, they were often directed to Long Bar. “Because it’s more than just a drink, it’s an experience altogether,” he said.
Acknowledging that the Singapore Sling is not an everyday drink for many Singaporeans, Derrick Lim, the general manager of private members’ wine club 67 Pall Mall, said that it nevertheless held cultural importance. “Its significance lies in its history, its connection to a particular place and its ability to carry Singapore’s name around the world,” he said.
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