How to Make the Drinks Singapore Sling and Rio Mocha and the History Behind Them

In addition to their enriching cultures, the countries Singapore and Spain have some of the best drinks in the world. Two of these are known as the Singapore Sling and Rio Mocha. Singapore Sling is a long drink with gin. Singapore itself is becoming more fashionable in all respects every year. But the Raffles Hotel, built in 1886, has remained very British. The writers Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and Noel Coward were guests at the Grand Old Lady of the East. They used to sit in the Writer's bar, which is still there today, drinking Singapore Sling based on the native gin. Gin, a distant relative of the Dutch Genever, had long been promoted by its own Gin Act in Parliament in Britain to a noble drink. Anybody who thought they were somebody drank it and whoever wanted to be identified as one of the heroes of the high life, drank the new mix of that barkeeper Ngiam Tong Boon from Raffles Hotel. To make:

Finely crushed ice

Juice of ½ lime

4cl (3 tablespoons) gin

2cl (1 ½ tablespoons) cherry brandy

1 dash Angostura bitters

Soda water to fill glass

To garnish: 1 slice of orange

2 cocktail cherries

Fill a large tumbler half full of crushed ice, pour over the juice of half a lime. Add gin, cherry brandy and Angostura and stir well. Top up with soda water, put half a slice of orange and a cocktail cherry on a cocktail stick and garnish the drink with this. Serve with a straw, and in my experience you can serve it before or after a meal.

A very different drink, the Rio Mocha, is a chocolate concoction from Spain. An Indian princess served the Spaniard, Hernando Cortez with the first cup of choko-l-atl. The Aztec's drink of the Gods made of cocoa beans and hot spices did not taste in the least bit bitter to the man from the Estremadura. After the successful battle of Tabasco he was given twenty girls as a present, including Malinche, the daughter of one of the Great Kaziks. She was clever, gifted with languages, beautiful and devoted. Malinche bore Cortez a son and the Spaniards called her Donna Martina. However, they soon turned her choko-l-atl into a sweet spicy drink which was slightly less hot. To make the ideal 4 portions:

100g (4 oz) plain chocolate

3 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons coffee powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch salt

100ml (4 fl oz / ½ cup) water

¾ liter (26 fl oz / 3 ½ cups) milk

To garnish: 100ml (4 fl oz / ½ cup) whipped cream

2 dessert spoons finely chopped

Candied orange peel

4 cinnamon sticks

In my experience, you'll want to heat the chocolate in a non-stick pan. Add sugar, coffee powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and water and simmer for 2-3 minutes stirring continuously. Slowly add milk and reheat. Beat until frothy with a whisk. Pour the drink into 4 tall heatproof glasses and garnish with whipped cream and finely chopped peel. Put one cinnamon stick into each heap of whipped cream. These are not only meant as decoration, but also to stir with. Rio Mocha is drunk in the afternoons and is delicious for all.