Singapore Sling Cocktail

This cocktail is thought to have been invented at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore in the World War One era. The use of "sling" for some cocktails seems to be from the idea of "swallowing, throwing back a drink," "seemingly" taken from German "schlingen" (now more commonly "verschlingen"), one of the meanings of which is "swallow (quickly), gulp" (the German form is related to English "sling," a word of confusing history, because of its various meanings over time, although undoubtedly from Germanic, but perhaps there was more than one Old Germanic form; that is, variants; thus, the divergent meanings in the Germanic languages.   

 

Back in the mid to late 1980s, I would occasionally order this cocktail at a Chinese restaurant on Playhouse Square here in Cleveland (unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the restaurant). There are variations in recipes for this cocktail and some shake the ingredients and strain them into a glass, but I prefer ice in the drink (not just this drink, but generally speaking, I'm not terribly fond of strained cocktails, although very occasionally I'll have one). 

 

Ingredients (per drink):

 

1 ounce gin

1 ounce cherry liqueur

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

2 ounces pineapple juice

1/4 ounce grenadine

1 or 2 dashes of angostura bitters

1 to 2 ounces of club soda

ice 

tall glass or another large glass (whatever the glass, it needs to hold 10 ounces, but preferably 12)

orange slice, pineapple chunk or section, cherry garnish 

 

In a tall glass, add the gin, cherry liqueur, lime juice, grenadine and angostura bitters; mix well, now add ice, stir, then top with club soda and stir again briefly. Garnish with an orange slice, pineapple chunk or section and a cherry. 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Dove-This word for a pigeon goes back to Indo European "dheu(b)," which meant "smoke, haze, dust, mist;" thus also adjectivally, "dark." This is "seemingly" in reference to the dark color of many pigeons. This gave Old Germanic "dubon," which meant, "pigeon," which then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dufa," with the same meaning, and this then became "douve" and "duve," before the modern form. While the original name seems to have had association with dark-colored pigeons, the lighter-colored birds, especially white, were associated with "peace, both personally and in reference to people getting along." The use of white doves as a symbol of peace seems to date to the World War One era (known as "the Great War" in those times, the war came to be known as "the war to end all wars," apparently a slight alteration of the H.G. Wells statement and title, "the war that will end war," as the war was so horrific, it was thought that humans would never allow such an event again; comment: such idealism and naivete can be very dangerous, which was proven when an even more horrific war took place, primarily in the first half of the 1940s). "Dove" also came to be applied to antiwar activists in the latter part of the World War One era; later, as opposed to "hawks;" that is, those who favor using military actions or military might to settle disputes. English generally uses "pigeon" now, but "dove" is used more for "turtle dove/mourning dove." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Taube," Low German has "Duuv" ('Duffer' is a male pigeon), West Frisian "do," Dutch "duif," Icelandic "dúfu," Danish and Norwegian "due," Swedish "duva."