My Sing Sling Sang a-ding-dang-doo

It's the 4th of July. Sounds like a fine day to make a pitcher of sangria. A bit late in the game to start planning and letting one sit and still having time to swallow it down today, so never mind actually.

One of the fine beverages available at the last Le Mixeur was a version of the Singapore Sling published by Dale DeGroff in "The Craft of the Cocktail," which can be made by the batch. This is a most handy thing when slinging many slings, especially a sling sing with cherries and everything!

(editor's note: the spirit of Theodore Giesel has taken possession of this blog. Please bear with us for a moment while we attempt to correct the problem...thank you.)

The recipe and method for Monsieur DeGroff's "Big Thing of Sing Sling" is as follows...

12 oz gin
4 oz Cherry Heering
2 oz Cointreau
2 oz Benedictine
4 to 8 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 ounces fresh lime

mix all of these together, then combine 3 oz mix with 3 oz pineapple juice, shake over ice, strain into ice-filled highball glass, and garnish with orange slice and cherry.

No grenadine?
Say that's a queer thing!
We've got Heering Benedictine but no Grenadine!
That's a very funny way to sling a thing of sing sling!

(editor's note: knock it off)

We went through many Singapore Slings at Le Mixeur, but still ended up with approximately a quart of leftover premix. I invited a few coworkers over the following week to try to finish it off. Unfortunately they turned out to be a bunch of pink-livered sissy boys (and girls), and only had a few before departing.

So now what to do? Well, as you may recall, this post began with certain mention of...go ahead and scroll back up to remind yourself, I'll wait...SANGRIA! Good work!

When Le Mixeur began, many a guest would arrive with bottle of wine as offering to us in exchange for our hosting. Eventually these guests became more consciously aware of the large jar filled with cash on the bar in front of us, and deduced from our subtle body language towards said jar that we were capitalist swines who mock such communal practices as bartering.

They stopped bringing wine and started bringing their wallets. And this was good. But truth be told I miss the free wine. Quite a little stockpile had built up at one time, but most have mysteriously vanished. Probably kids from the neighborhood or something. Who knows?

But I did have a lonely bottle of Smoking Loon Syrah, which seemed like the perfect wine to experiment with rather than drink. So I whooped me up some Sangria using the Sing Sling premix as a base as opposed to brandy. I call it my Sing Sling Sang.

SING SLING SANG

16 oz authentic Dale Degroff recipe Sing Sling premix
6 oz pineapple juice
4 oz lime
4 oz lemon
750 mL Syrah
2 peaches
1 lemon
1 orange
6 tiny apricots (I mean tiny...like golf-balls they were)

combine the fluids in a pitcher and stir
cut peaches and apricots into wedges, and orange and lemon into thin slices, and add to the mix
refrigerate and let sit for about 12 hours
pour over ice and top with a small amount of sparkling water

I don't recall exactly how long I waited, but since I was not going to be consuming this all at once I eventually strained out the fruit and stored the Sangria in a mason jar. I garnished with fresh fruit when serving it after that.

It came out very nice. The citrus and bitters created a dry finish that kept things from being too syrupy. Adding the sparkling water can be done to taste. I found that without it the drink was too sweet, but more than just a splash or two and it quickly started to taste like, well, watery wine.

Fondest tidings to you all on this holiday weekend.

And if anyone knows of somewhere where I can live in Seattle after the end of this month, please let me know. I find making and drinking Sing Sling Sang is far less enjoyable when undertaken under a highway overpass or in the back seat of an abandoned vehicle. But then I'm known to be a snob.


Comments