In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Terry Gilliam turns Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo narrative into a hallucinatory spectacle of neon excess and desert madness. Amid the chaos, one of the film’s most strikingly calm scenes features Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo seated on a sunlit hotel patio, sipping Singapore Slings with mescal on the side. For a fleeting moment, the absurdity slows, and the lurid cocktail becomes a fragile tether to civility.
The Singapore Sling itself is a dazzling creation: tropical fruit, herbaceous liqueurs, and vivid color combine into something equal parts exotic and indulgent. On screen, it represents a strange pause in the manic narrative, a reminder that even in the middle of chaos, beauty and elegance sometimes interrupt the madness.
Servings: 1
Time: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Adventurous
🍹 Ingredients
- 🥃 Gin (30 ml)
- 🍒 Cherry liqueur (15 ml)
- 🍊 Cointreau or triple sec (7.5 ml)
- 🌱 DOM Bénédictine (7.5 ml)
- 🍍 Pineapple juice (120 ml)
- 🍋 Lime juice (15 ml)
- 🍓 Grenadine (10 ml)
- 🍂 Dash Angostura bitters
- 🍍 Pineapple wedge, cherry (garnish)
🥂 Instructions
- Add gin, cherry liqueur, Cointreau, Bénédictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine, and bitters to a shaker with ice.
- Shake vigorously until well chilled and frothy.
- Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice.
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a cherry for full tropical flair.
🎬 An Exotic Pause in the Madness
Drinking a Singapore Sling is like stepping briefly out of the desert sun into a lush island bar. Sweet, sour, herbal, and juicy all at once, it’s both complex and approachable. In Fear and Loathing, the drink highlights the sharp contrast between elegance and excess, an oasis of order within the characters’ spiraling descent.
This makes the Sling not just a tropical classic, but a cinematic metaphor: amid chaos, there’s always a pocket of beauty worth savoring.
💡 Tip for Maximum Impact
Fresh pineapple juice makes all the difference, lending the frothy top and bright flavor that canned juice can’t quite match. For a more traditional finish, serve it topped with a splash of soda water to lift its tropical depth with a gentle sparkle.
🌴 Perfect Setting
The Singapore Sling shines brightest at summer parties, rooftop bars, or any setting where theatrics and refreshment mingle. It’s a cocktail designed as both spectacle and pleasure, like the film scene, it invites you to pause mid-chaos and savor something vivid, colorful, and fleetingly perfect. Cheers!
🍸 The True Origins of the Singapore Sling
The Singapore Sling wasn’t born in Las Vegas but rather in the grand colonial setting of the Raffles Hotel, Singapore, in the early 20th century. Around 1915, bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created the drink as a clever solution to the social norms of the time. Women at the Long Bar wanted something refined to sip, but propriety discouraged them from openly drinking spirits.
Ngiam’s answer was the Singapore Sling: a gin-based cocktail disguised as a fruit punch, with rosy color from grenadine and cherry liqueur. It looked like a harmless juice, but beneath the soft blush lay a harmonious blend of tropical and herbal flavors.
Over the decades, the Sling became Singapore’s signature cocktail, carrying with it stories of colonial glamour, tropical discovery, and the art of bartending as performance. Where once it was a disguise, today it’s celebrated openly as a triumph of balance: sweet, tart, herbal, and endlessly photogenic.
To order one at the Raffles’ Long Bar today is to take a sip of living history, in the very place where East and West mingled over cocktails designed to both soothe and surprise.
Image: Singapore Sling Cocktail with typical ingredients. Achim Schleuning.