Long Bar

In colonial Singapore of the early 1900s, Long Bar, then located along Cad’s Alley, was known as “the rendezvous of planters.” Tables faced Bras Basah Road, offering a vantage point for watching the world go by. While men sipped whisky or gin, etiquette forbade women from drinking alcohol in public. They were served teas or fruit juices instead.

In 1915, a resourceful Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon crafted a cocktail that resembled fruit juice but was cleverly laced with gin and liqueurs. It blended gin, pineapple juice, lime juice, curaçao and Bénédictine, with grenadine and cherry liqueur lending its now-famous rosy hue. The elegant disguise made it socially acceptable for women and an instant success.

With that, the Singapore Sling was born, and over a century later, remains one of the world’s most iconic cocktails, savoured in the very bar where it first began.