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
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 1800 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 1800 ml line. Ginger ale - A dry, gingery one - the sweetened-up kind makes this cloying
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Grenadine
- 120 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 120 ml line. Lime juice - Not traditional, but the drink is better for it
- 24 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
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 2.1 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.
- 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
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.
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.