Manuscript Cocktail Recipe for Singapore Gin Sling on Raffles Hotel letterhead stationary. [Singapore]: [Raffles Hotel, Limited], [1936].
'First Edition'. Original Raffles Hotel letterhead stationary, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches, dated April 4, 1936. Ink manuscript sheet listing the ingredients for 'Singapore Gin Sling' by 'the bartender of the Raffles Hotel Bar'. Presumably written down by a patron who inquired from the bartender how to make the drink. Tong Boon, the Hainanese bartender who is credited with creating the drink while working the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel died in 1915. His original recipe was lost or stolen and when in more modern times the hotel owner wanted to use the famous drink to promote the Raffles he had to use a recipe scrawled on the back of a receipt by a customer in 1936. This receipt was once housed at the Raffles museum until it closed in 2012 and was reported to have been moved to the Singapore National Archives, though they were unable to locate it for me while researching this item. This recipe (the one once housed in the museum), now the official recipe, which utilizes gin, cherry brandy, pineapple juice, lime juice, Cointreau, DOM Benedictine, grenadine and Anguostura bitters differs somewhat from the one offered here which uses sugar and lemon, orange bitters and Maraschino and Curacao. In any event, this item, written down in the same year as the official version used by the Raffles today is a great rarity. Very Good.
Price: $4,000.00