Shirley Temple
Ginger ale and grenadine - the most famous drink in the world with no alcohol in it.
Photo: Canadia-style Shirley Temple by Ryan Forsythe (fweez) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · All credits
Ingredients
- 150 ml Jigger Three large sides (3 x 50 ml) of a standard jigger. Ginger ale - A dry, gingery one - the sweetened-up kind makes this cloying
- 15 ml Spoons A tablespoon. Grenadine
- 10 ml Spoons Two teaspoons. Lime juice - Not traditional, but the drink is better for it
- 2 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 ginger ale over ice, then trickle the grenadine down the inside of the glass.
Method
- Fill a highball glass with ice.
- Pour in the ginger ale and the lime juice and stir once.
- Trickle the grenadine down the inside of the glass so it sinks and gathers at the bottom.
- Add two cherries on a stick, and let whoever is drinking it stir it themselves.
Serve it
Shirley Temple
The story every bar tells is that the child star was at Chasen's in Hollywood in the 1930s and could not be given a cocktail, so the bartender made her something pink. Temple herself said later that she was never much of a drinker and that the whole thing was a bit of a nuisance laid at her door - but the name stuck, and it has been the first cocktail most people ever order ever since.
Getting it right
The drink lives or dies on the ginger ale: something dry and gingery, from a freshly opened bottle, is a different drink from a can of sweet fizz. Trickle the grenadine in rather than stirring it, so it sinks through the glass and the drink changes as it goes down - the first mouthful is ginger ale and the last is pomegranate. We add a squeeze of lime, which is not traditional and is the one thing we would not give up.
Tasting notes
Sweet and gently fiery, with the grenadine coming up through the ginger ale as it sits. It is unashamedly a drink for a person who wants something pink and has no interest in being told otherwise.