Haskap Sling

One Saturday in August we enjoyed a lovely evening of cocktails at our local distillery, Mann’s. On our way out, always wanting to support local, we sampled a few of their liqueurs and gins. I loved the Haskap Berry Liqueur. It is a lovely sipping liquor, but of course, my mind goes to cocktails!

I looked around at some popular cocktails and into my liquor cabinet to see what was speaking to me. I stuck with the Berry theme and used a Cherry Gin from Dillons. What sort of drink to make? I landed on a sling. According to research on many sites, there is no standard sling recipe. Every bartender or mixologist makes it their own. That is my kind of drink! However, what is standard is a mixture of liquors, bitters, some sort of fruit and citrus juice. Most have grenadine, as it sweetens the drink and gives it the red color.

Apparently in the 1980’s in the US, the Singapore sling got a bad rap. If a drink was mis-poured, they poured into a container (we will call it swamp water) and when someone ordered a sling, the emptied that into a glass as the base, added some grenadine and a splash of soda water. Add a pretty garnish and you have a Singapore Sling.

A Singapore Sling post-dates the original sling. The original sling was made from a base spirit, sugar and water. Sometimes made hot and called a toddy. You can still drink the Singapore Sling at its birthplace, the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. It was created by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915. The pretty color was meant to be more attractive and socially acceptable to women. Genius really! It consists of gin, pineapple juice, lime juice, curaçao and Bénédictine. The pink coloring comes from Cherry liquor and grenadine.

Haskap Sling Ingredients

Mann’s Haskap Berry Liqueur – this is the star of this drink. If you use another berry liqueur, you may need to tweak the name!  However, you could take liberty as your own mixologist.

What is a Haskap Berry

According to haskap.ca, it is an edible blue honeysuckle berry. It was named by the indigenous Ainu peoples of Japan. It was first cultivated by Canada in Alberta in the 1950’s and is found wild in all provinces but British Columbia. It resembles a blueberry in color, but it’s shape is more oblong with ‘twin berries,’ and it is also blue inside. It is considered a superfood with more antioxidants than most fruits, including blueberries. It has a lot of vitamin C, A, and potassium. Once again, we just made the cocktail healthy!

Gin – I used Cherry Gin from Dillon's distillery in Stoney Creek. I played on the fruity flavor in the sling. You could use other berry flavored gins or plain gin if that is what you have.

Orange Liqueur – I used Grand Marnier, but you could use Triple Sec or Cointreau.

Pineapple and orange juice – I used store bought, however if you have the time and will to process your own, go for it.

Lime juice – I used the juice of half a fresh lime. Once again, fresh is best, but store bought is fine. So many flavors, lime is not the star of the show here.

Grenadine – gives the marvelous color and some sweetness to the drink.

Bitters – I used orange bitters, any citrus bitters will do. They are used to enhance the unique flavors of the cocktail and to increase the aromatics.