2015 marks the 100 year anniversary of the invention of the Singapore Sling and Cherry Heering are celebrating with two competitions based around this iconic cocktail.
In 1915 a bartender at Raffles Hotel’s legendary Long Bar in Singapore came up with a new drink featuring a big dash of Cherry Heering, and named it The Singapore Sling. Rarely in history has a drink become so widely known around the world and as synonymous with its home.
For several years Cherry Heering have been running The Sling Awards to celebrate this drink and unsurprisingly are upping their game for the 100 year anniversary. Alongside the Sling Awards they are also launching a new competition offering bars the opportunity to raise money for the conservation of wild tigers, we will be bringing you more details on that competition in the coming days but for now let’s focus on the Sling Awards.
To get yourself in the running for the trip to Singapore, where you will also get to meet the wild tigers, you will need to come up with a Sling Menu consisting of 3 Slings. 2 of these Slings must be your own creation inspired by the classic Singapore serve and the third must be the Singapore Sling itself, all three must contain Cherry Heering.
Definition of cocktails can often lead to drunken arguments but in this case it is Cherry Heerings definition of the Sling that you need to worry about and it looks like this:
‘The typical sling usually has several base ingredients, some type of alcohol, fruit flavors, particularly citrus, water (flat or fizzy), and sugar. In the 19th century, these drinks could be served hot or cold, and were very similar to many of the hot punches served at the time, though they typically lacked spices. The tradition of serving this drink cold, which is now the preferred method, came into popularity in the early 20th century, particularly with the invention of the Singapore Sling. If you want a very short description I would say: A highball with liquor and water with sugar and lemon or lime juice and of course the Peter F Heering Liqueur.’
Once the entries have all been received the top drink in each market will be chosen by the expert judging panel and the top 10 will be presented to an international judging panel in New York. From there the top 5 will be off to Singapore for two nights to check out the amazing city and all it has to offer in October this year.
Deadline for entry into this great competition is 31st May so get your Sling on and get involved here
We will bring you details of the charity based bar competition which offers another 4 trips to Singapore in the next few days.