Roy Rogers
Cola and grenadine - the Shirley Temple in a cowboy's clothes.
Photo: Roy Rogers Drink by Johnl4th · CC BY-SA 3.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 900 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 900 ml line. Cola - A good, spicy cola - this drink is mostly cola, so it is worth choosing one
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Grenadine
- 60 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus two teaspoons. Lime juice
- 6 cherries Maraschino cherry (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Pour the cola over ice, add the lime, then let the grenadine sink through it.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 1.05 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a highball glass with ice and pour in the cola.
- Add the lime juice - a small thing that stops the drink being simply sweet.
- Trickle the grenadine down the inside of the glass and stir it in at the table.
- Drop in a cherry.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Roy Rogers
Where the Shirley Temple is ginger ale and grenadine, this is cola and grenadine, and it is named after the singing cowboy who was said to order one in bars rather than drink - a nicer story than most drink names get, and one the man never disputed. Whether he ever did order it is beside the point by now; the drink has been on the same children's menu as its ginger-ale cousin for eighty years.
Getting it right
There are three ingredients and one of them is doing almost all the work, so choose the cola deliberately: a spiced one with real vanilla and citrus in it makes a long, grown-up drink, and a plain sweet one makes the whole glass taste like a melted ice lolly. Build it over plenty of ice, keep the grenadine to a trickle, and take the lime juice seriously. Without the lime the drink is all sugar.
Tasting notes
Dark brown in the glass and claret where the grenadine has settled, faintly herbal from the cola and faintly pomegranate at the end. It is a good drink for a long evening, and no embarrassment to anybody ordering it.