The sling , a simple, even basic mixture of spirits, sugar, and water, is among the earlier varieties of mixed alcoholic beverage. Of American origin, it became popular at the end of the eighteenth century (it is first recorded to in Maryland in 1778) and remained so well into the nineteenth century and, in the bastardized form of the Singapore Sling, into the twenty-first. With respect to the origin of the name, David Wondrich speculates that it “most likely takes [its name] from the act of ‘slinging’ one back.”
The sling was mentioned, by way of well-established reference, in the oft-cited May 13, 1806, item in the Hudson (NY) Balance and Columbian Repository, which first defined the cocktail, noting that “it is vulgarly called bittered sling.” See Cock-Tail. Like the cocktail and the julep, it can be seen as an offshoot of punch, although where the cocktail substitutes bitters for the citrus and a julep mint, the sling leaves that space blank. See julep. In that, the sling is identical to the British toddy, although it was typically made with equal parts water and spirit, where the weaker toddy typically used two parts of water to one of spirit.
Popular variations during the nineteenth century included the Rum Sling, Brandy Sling, Gin Sling, and Whisky Sling, all of which were quite popular. In a 1910 story, the late editor and politician Horace Greeley (1811–1872) was quoted as saying that in his youth “a wedding without ‘toddy,’ ‘sling’ or ‘punch,’ with rum undisguised in abundance, would have been deemed a poor, mean affair, even among the penniless.” Indeed, according to Wondrich, “the Sling, particularly the gin variety (first attested to in 1800), soon became one of the iconic American drinks, consumed morning, noon, and night everywhere American was spoken.”
Indeed, as the Antijacobin Review noted in 1814, “Rum, brandy, or gin sling, is a common beverage for travellers throughout the States; and the stage-coachmen, in the course of a journey, take ‘a special good quantity of it.’ ” By then, as the author added, “Sometimes [the sling] consists only of the liquor and water; but in general it is made of milk with ginger or nutmeg in it.” While the milk was perhaps not standard, the nutmeg certainly was, as an 1825 New-York Evening Post confirms when it attests that “half a tumbler of gin sling, well covered with powdered nutmeg, proves a speedy and efficacious stop in that dangerous and alarming complaint, a bleeding of the lungs.”
Further, in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book, How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion, he noted that the main distinguishing characteristic between a “toddy” (sugar, water, spirit, and ice) and a “sling” was nutmeg, writing that “the brandy sling is made with the same ingredients as the brandy toddy, except you grate a little nutmeg on top.” In the posthumous 1887 edition of the book, however, the editor quietly removed the nutmeg requirement; by then, the once-ubiquitous ingredient was beginning to fall out of favor. On the other hand, both the 1882 and 1888 editions of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual call for grated nutmeg atop drinks such as the Cold Whisky Sling, the Hot Scotch Whisky Sling, and the Brandy Sling.
The latter half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth saw a broadening of the sling’s ingredients outside of the United States, particularly in the British realm. The most famous of the British slings, the Singapore Sling, contains citrus, liqueur(s), and other sweeteners. See Singapore Sling.
Recipe (Jerry Thomas’s Gin Sling): In an Old-Fashioned glass, stir a barspoon of sugar with 30 ml water until sugar has dissolved. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes and 60 ml genever. Stir well and grate nutmeg over the top.
See also toddy.
“Lambert’s Travels through Canada and the United States.” Antijacobin Review, July 1814, 552.
Wondrich, David. Imbibe!, 2nd ed. New York: Perigee, 2015.
By: Philip Greene