![]() ![]() The traditional Singapore Sling is absolutely a “gin drink,” but a rather complex one that contains many other flavors competing for the drinker’s attention, from the herbal bittersweet notes of Benedictine, to the tart cherry of Heering. It’s not part of the traditional tiki arcana in the sense that it wasn’t a Donn Beach-type creation, but it’s always been welcome in tiki circles for its South Pacific theming, and the fact that it was originally created in Singapore at some point early in the 20th century. The Singapore Sling is a pretty mythical cocktail at this point, inscrutable and ever-changing in terms of the published recipes you’ll run across. An old fashioned glass full of crushed ice should handle this volume just fine. Shake vigorously, then strain into a rocks glass with more crushed ice. I’ve even had it served up, on a stem glass as well.Ĭombine all ingredients in a cocktail tin with plenty of crushed ice. It can be made simply shaken and served on the rocks, or fully blended as a frozen drink. Regardless, the drink is bright, fruity, friendly and accented with deeper spice and nutty notes that give it some soul. Truly one of the biggest success stories of gin as a tiki spirit, the Saturn vaguely has the feel of a passion fruit-infused mai tai, although this is sort of a trap, as we tend to describe just about anything with almond orgeat having mai tai characteristics. Suffice to say, it was clearly an immediately accepted part of the canon. It has impressively exploded in popularity in the years since, to the point that I was once served one of these drinks a few years ago in a non-tiki seafood restaurant in Scotland. “Popo” Galsini, but it vanished from public memory until rediscovered by tiki author and historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, and then published in his 2010 book Beachbum Berry Remixed. ![]() Probably the most famous modern “gin tiki” cocktail, the Saturn was a contest-winning cocktail created in 1967 by California bartender J. Below, we’ve assembled several of these cocktails, focusing on the ones where gin is a primary spirit. The use of gin in tiki drinks can range from a tiny contribution–as in the mere half oz of gin included in Trader Vic’s legendarily mind-numbing Fog Cutter cocktail–to making up half, or all, of the alcohol in a drink. “Gin tiki,” in fact, is well enough established to almost be its own tiki subgenre at this point, with a handful of classic cocktails that one can expect to find in many bars and restaurants focused on tropical/exotic drinks. But of all the adjacent spirits that have long been welcome in the tiki world, gin is perhaps the most popular and enduring. In fact, rum has always been bedfellows with several other spirits such as brandy and whiskey, both of which are present in a fair number of recipes in the golden era of tiki cocktails. Put them together, and you have the tiki drink-cocktails defined by their long lists of exotic sounding juices, syrups, cordials and liqueurs … and yes, rum.įrom the very beginning, though, it’s not as if other forms of spirits have been prohibited from appearing in classic tiki drinks. This is no coincidence-the very idea of “tiki” as we think of it today is perhaps better defined as Polynesian Pop, and the ethos of Polynesian Pop was a romanticized version of the supposed adventure and “danger” inherent in the South Seas, combined with the tropical, rum-based drinks of the Caribbean. If you were asking a cocktail fan to define what makes for a “tiki drink,” then rum would surely be one of the first words mentioned. ![]() Also: It’s Gin Month at Paste! Check out a new wave of gin tastings and reviews here. For our previous list of whiskey-based tiki drinks, click here. ![]()
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