For readers who want to shake this one up themselves, I've already done the homework: here's the full list of ingredients, bottle by bottle. Now, the story behind the glass.
The Singapore Sling was created around 1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar of the legendary Raffles Hotel in Singapore. At the time, Victorian etiquette forbade women from drinking alcohol in public, so Ngiam disguised a boozy concoction of gin and cherry liqueur behind a veil of tropical juices and pink grenadine, making it look like a harmless fruit punch — and freeing Raffles' ladies to drink alongside the men.
The original recipe was famously lost, and the version served at Raffles today was reconstructed from 1930s handwritten notes. The cocktail became a symbol of British colonial Asia, celebrated by writers like Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling, and still today, visitors at the Long Bar throw peanut shells on the floor, a ritual that has survived a century of tropical evenings.
If the story has tempted you to try this cocktail at home, don't underestimate the role of equipment. A complete barman kit like this one on Amazon gives you all the basic professional tools in one go. And for a more ambitious setup, a professional cocktail bar station is the piece of furniture that takes home bartending to the next level.