Bristow Sling (Original Recipe)

 

This is what happens when you grab a flavored whiskey and just wing it with things you have on hand. I'm talking about the Sling and how the sling is one of the oldest cocktails around, yet we often overlook it as an easy formula that will please bargoers. 

So this whiskey sling is using naturally-flavored MurLarkey lemon whiskey, which is just dried lemons soaked in the barrel with their Justice white whiskey. The rest of this sling's ingredients are pretty standard, with Cherry Heering, lime juice and soda being the main ones. I changed things up by adding my own Mandarine Napoleon liqueur to add more richness from the cognac spirit and the spices and orange notes that it provides. 

• 1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey lemon whiskey 
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
  
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
• 1/2 oz. Mandarine Napoleon (homemade) liqueur
• club soda
  
• luxardo cherry and lime slice garnish

Combine all ingredients except soda and garnishes in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Add garnishes to the top of the glass.

Vejk Sling (Death & Co. Recipe)

Slings are popular, tasty and easy to make. They are some of the oldest cocktails in history, and yet they are not going away anytime soon. Basically, you need only a base spirit, some juice and soda, and a dash of a flavorful liqueur or a garnish usually helps distinguish one sling from another.

This Sling is mostly distinguished by scotch. It needs little else to make it interesting, however Dolin blanc and orange bitters send it in an appropriately fruity direction. Furthermore, a chamomile infusion in the Dolin blanc adds earthiness and apple-like notes

• 2 oz. Compass Box Asyla scotch (Spyburn 10-year-old used)
• 1 oz. chamomile-infused Dolin blanc vermouth
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 dash Bittermen's orange bitters (Hella used)
• club soda
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except soda in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and twist the lemon zest over the drink and drop it in. 

 

Green Hills Sling (Original Recipe)

 

This is a light and spritzy cocktail for spring. Asparagus and gin is the perfect flavor combination to captures the newly growing flowers and vegetables of the season, but asparagus is seldom used in cocktails and I've often wondered why. In a world where artichoke and elderflower liqueurs are not only acceptable, but found in nearly every bar, why not asparagus gin?

I made this asparagus gin by infusing vodka with gin botanicals and three asparagus stems (my old bathtub gin recipe modified slightly to make room for asparagus flavors. The botanical mix includes 1 tbsp. juniper berries and a half teaspoon of anise seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and caraway seeds with one long lemon zest. Then I added the asparagus stems and a bottle of 100-proof vodka and let it infuse for three days. (It is easy to over-steep bathtub gin and that makes the juniper more bitter, covering the other botanicals.)

Alternatively, you can take your favorite gin and infuse it with asparagus. I recommend doing it in a large jar rather than dropping the asparagus into your bottle. If you can't get the asparagus out of the bottle after three days, it will start tasting like bitter overcooked asparagus.

The rest of the cocktail is pretty straightforward. Asparagus gin, akvavit, and Dolin blanc for the herbal spirits, lemon juice and St-Germain to balance the acidity and add sweetness and a floral nose. 

• 1 1'/2 oz. asparagus gin (homemade infusion used)
  
• 1 oz. Dolin blanc 
• 3/4 oz. St-Germain
• 1/2 oz. akvavit (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• sparkling water
  
• 3 fresh asparagus stems for garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients except sparkling water in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and garnish with asparagus. 

Sloe Scibyville Sling (Death & CO. Recipe)

Not too many drinks are made with sloe gin. It is kind of an old world thing and the sweetness is really only appreciated in winter. I'm sure that the Plymouth sloe gin is much better than this Mr. Boston variety, but it is what I can afford. 

Still, not a bad drink, with the berry liqueur that makes a Sling a Sling coming in the form of sloe gin. There's also an apple note from applejack. Scobeyville is in New Jersey, home state of the Laird's apple brandy distillery.

• 2 oz. Laird's apple brandy (Applejack 86 used)
• 1 oz. Plymouth sloe gin (Mr. Boston used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• club soda
• fuji apple slice as garnish

Shake all ingredients except soda and garnish and strain into a highball glass full of ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Garnish with the apple slice.

Poolabanga Sling

A tropical Sling, very much like the Singapore Sling, is a fizzy and fruity cocktail that is easy to drink on a hot day. The substitution of aged rum and falernum made me want to put it in a tiki mug--and that's a good impulse. Slings aren't especially pretty in clear glasses, the Herring and lime juice tend to make them look a little brown. The glass itself, then becomes the decoration. Just be sure to pick a large glass because a lot of tiki mugs don't have room to top with soda.

• 1 1/2 oz. aged rum (Vitae Barrel Aged used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. falernum (homemade used)
• tsp. cherry brandy (Herring used)
• club soda
• mint sprigs

Combine all ingredients except soda and mint in a blender with ice. Flash blend and pour into a highball or tiki mug. Top with soda and garnish with mint.

Gin Sling

The Gin Sling is just an easy way to drink gin. Unlike the Gin Fix, which is really similar, it is not made in the glass like an Old Fashioned. This cocktail is stirred in a mixing glass, which is unusual for a drink with this much juice.

Glendalough Wild Botanical gin takes on a cloudy appearance when it is stirred because of its being unfiltered. The herbs, fruits and spices of the gin release into the water for a very intense drink.

• 2 oz. gin (Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin used)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. water
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• orange twist

Combine sugar and water in a mixing glass and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add lemon juice, gin and ice and stir to chill. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice and garnish with an orange twist. 

Vodka Sling

As I've said before, a sling is an easy way to drink a particular liquor. The Vodka Sling is citrusy and sweet and a good rocks sipper if you really like your vodka. Aylesbury Duck wheat vodka was especially smooth when done this way.

• 2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. water
• 1 tsp sugar
• orange twist

Dissolve sugar in water in a mixing glass. Add vodka, lemon juice and ice and stir. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange twist. 

Whiskey Sling

So that Whiskey Sour you love and always order at the bar? It's really a Sling. A Sling is spirit, citrus and sugar served on the rocks. A Sour usually has egg white in it and it should be served up in a Sour glass.

I only saying this to point out that the Sour is a little harder to do, so it has devolved into the simpler Sling. Do what you wish with this information.

I got an inexpensive bottle of whiskey to do some of those summer cooling cocktails. Seagram's Seven Crown boasts that it is made with 75 percent grain neutral spirit. That's like vodka. Then there's the blend of aged whiskies, which may add some color, but Seagram's 7 is pretty pale. It doesn't explain where that rich wood taste comes from, and the blend is pretty smooth. Careful not to drink too much, it is known to give headaches.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's Seven Crown used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. water
• orange twist

Combine sugar and water in a shaker and mix to partially dissolve. Add whiskey, lemon juice and ice and shake. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass and garnish with an orange twist. 

Whiskey Sling

The Whiskey Sling is a blended whiskey drink, but all I had was bourbon, Cleveland Bourbon, that is. A sling, it seems, is a "helpmate" cocktail. These drinks, like Fixes and Fizzes, are designed to help soften a spirit and get it down your gullet in a hurry, hence the "sling" terminology.

One thing I found fascinating about the Whiskey Sling--and it's the reason it differs from a Whiskey Sour--is it's preparation precludes chilling. I'm not sure why, but the idea is to have a rocks drink that is still pretty warm when served, which melts the ice cubes just as if it was all room temperature hard liquor. But it isn't; it's juice and sugar and a little water, which is easy to drink.

A word about Cleveland Bourbon. It's isn't really bourbon, but it is probably a straight whiskey. The Sling calls for a blend for the obvious mixability of blends. But Cleveland Bourbon is a "black label" of the brand, distilled in Indiana and rapidly aged in Cleveland. It can't be bourbon because of its origins and rapid aging process, but it is very much in the style of bourbon, perhaps more than most American whiskies like Jack Daniels.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland Bourbon used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. fine sugar
• 1 tsp. water 
• orange twist

Combine water and sugar in a mixing glass and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add whiskey and lemon juice and stir. Pour over ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the orange twist and give one more gentle stir.