shanghai sling

1 1/2 oz Gin
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Five Spice Simple Syrup (*)
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Orange Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice cubes. Garnish with a lime wheel and a straw.
Last week I needed to go to get my license renewed which found me in Boston's Chinatown district. After spending an hour and a half at the RMV, I decided to treat myself and go spice shopping. In one store, I spotted a large bag of five spice powder for a whopping 79 cents and it was too tempting to pass up. While there is some regional variation as to what the 5 spices are, this one was aniseed, fennel, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper.

When I got home, I started on making a simple syrup out of the powder (see instructions below). As I was preparing dinner after Andrea got home, I decided we could use a tall drink to deal with this heat and figured that a Singapore Sling variant would make good use of the freshly bottled syrup. In this sling, the five spice simple syrup flavors worked well with the gin botanicals and with the Angostura bitters especially the cinnamon. These spice notes came through at the end of the swallow after the wave of fruit from the cherry liqueur and lime juice. Indeed, the Shanghai Sling was quite refreshing for the hot weather -- I believe it was still 85°F inside at 8:30pm. This would still be considered cool compared to the temperatures that the Raffles Hotel in Singapore would have reached when the Singapore Sling was invented cerca 1910.

(*) Five Spice Simple Syrup
1 cup Water
1 cup Sugar
1 tbsp (1/2 oz) 5 Spice Powder

Bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool and strain through a tea towel. Store in a sealable container in the refrigerator.