In a time when Singapore was a mere trading port, an iconic hotel was established in the 1887. Rubber and plantation owners from Malaya would gather at the 12-metre-long bar, on weekends to unwind. In this same era, women were only permitted to drink tea or juice in public, until 1915 when an ingenious barman (Ngiam Tong Boon) created the Singapore Sling…. cleverly disguised elegant, pink-hued fruity drink made with pineapple juice, gin, and a blend of liqueurs. Add, the perfect accompaniment, the shelled peanut …. and the rest is history!!
Yes, you guessed it the hotel is Raffles and the bar is still the LONG BAR, even though slightly shorter. The drink without a doubt is the most well known in the world. Today, the bar serves over 1000 Slings a day, with the assistance of a cast-iron, hand-cranked machine introduced in 2015 capable of shaking 18 drinks at a time.
Perhaps most remarkably, when Singapore gained independence in 1965 and introduced some of the strictest anti-littering laws in the world, the Long Bar survived unchanged. What saved it was historical immunity—a tradition older than the law itself, and an experience so unique that it cannot be replicated anywhere else… not even elsewhere within Raffles Hotel.
