Gin Sling

Recommended The Bar-Tender's Guide by Jerry Thomas (1862, p.62) — Jerry Thomas 1862

1. Prepare a Gin Toddy in a small bar glass.
2. Finish by grating a little nutmeg on top.

Garnish: Freshly grated nutmeg

Ice: Small lump of ice

Nose

Nutmeg sits over soft gin botanicals on the nose.

Palate

The palate is plain but aromatic, with the gin's herbal edge now framed by the sling's spice cue.

Finish

It finishes lightly spiced, botanical, and neat.

Summary

A very simple sling whose identity lies almost entirely in its aromatic finish and family naming.

Gin Sling helps show how elastic these old families were. Thomas treats the format as portable across spirits with minimal need for further explanation.

As with all of these early utility drinks, the nutmeg belongs on the surface and the dilution should stay modest.

The Gin Sling keeps reinforcing the pattern: toddy is the base grammar, sling is one of its named aromatic branches.

The Gentleman's Table Guide by E. Ricket and C. Thomas (1871, p.49)

1. Place the lemon slices and sugar in a soda-water glass.
2. Fill up with shaved ice.
3. Add the gin and shake well.
4. Serve with two straws.

Ice: Shaved ice

The American Bar-Tender by E. A. Simmons (1874, p.8)

1. Add the sugar, water, gin, and ice to a small glass.
2. Stir with a spoon.
3. Grate nutmeg on top.

Garnish: Nutmeg

Ice: Small lump of ice

American and Other Drinks by Leo Engel (1878, p.47)

1. Make the same as Gin Toddy, adding a little grated nutmeg on top.

Garnish: Grated nutmeg

Ice: One small lump of ice

Drinks a La Mode by Mrs de Salis (1891, p.47) — Drinks a La Mode 1891

1. Put lemon slices and loaf sugar into a tumbler, fill with shaven or crushed ice, add gin, stir, and serve with a straw.

Garnish: Lemon slices

Ice: Shaven or crushed Wenham Lake ice

Wehman's Bartender's Guide by Henry J. Wehman (1891, p.53) — Holland Gin (Henry J. Wehman 1891)

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a small bar glass.
2. Add the gin and small lump of ice and stir thoroughly with a spoon.
3. Grate a little nutmeg on top and serve.

Garnish: Nutmeg

Ice: Small ice lump

Nose

Gin and fresh nutmeg create a softer and more domestic aroma than the sharper sour family.

Palate

The drink is simple, sweetened, and spirit-led, preserving the old sling logic rather than moving into citrus or soda territory.

Finish

The finish is short, warm-spiced, and gently botanical.

Summary

A plain cold sling that preserves a very old mixed-drink grammar into the 1890s.

Cold gin sling matters because it shows how long the old sugar-water-spirit family survived alongside more modern cocktails, sours, and fizzes. This is one of the clearest examples of continuity rather than replacement.

The drink depends on restraint. Too much dilution or excess garnish would push it away from sling simplicity.

Compared with a gin cocktail, this is much plainer and less aromatic in design. Compared with hot sling service, it is the same family logic cooled down rather than structurally reinvented.

Wehman's Bartender's Guide by Henry J. Wehman (1891, p.53) — Hot (Henry J. Wehman 1891)

1. Dissolve the loaf sugar in a little water in a hot water glass.
2. Add the Holland gin.
3. Fill the balance with hot water and stir with a spoon.
4. Grate a little nutmeg on top and add a slice of lemon if desired.

Garnish: Nutmeg, optional lemon slice

Nose

Hot gin and nutmeg rise first, with optional lemon adding a brighter edge.

Palate

It is a simple warming sling, showing gin service in its older sweetened hot-water form rather than as a cocktail or sour.

Finish

The finish is gently sweet, warming, and botanical.

Summary

A hot sling that keeps the old sweetened gin-and-water line visibly alive in the 1890s.

Hot Gin Sling is useful because it shows how conservative bar service remained even as the cocktail world became more complex. Plain hot sling forms persisted alongside more modern mixed-drink fashions.

The drink should be hot and integrated, not scalding and raw. Nutmeg and optional lemon are finishing touches, not excuses to overcomplicate it.

Compared with the cold Gin Sling, this is more openly restorative. Compared with hot toddy service, it keeps the sling identity in name and tone even when the structure overlaps heavily.

Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappeler (1895, p.101) — Cold

1. Prepare the same as Cold Brandy Sling, substituting gin for brandy.

Garnish: Nutmeg

Ice: Ice

The Complete Buffet Guide by V. B. Lewis (1903, p.67) — Cold

1. Dissolve the lump of sugar in a little water.
2. Add the lump of ice and the gin, stir, grate a little nutmeg on top, and serve.

Garnish: Grated nutmeg

Ice: Lump ice

Nose

Holland gin and nutmeg define the nose.

Palate

The cold form keeps the sling family very close to its toddy ancestry: sweetening, a little water, spirit, and spice, with ice now mediating the service.

Finish

The finish is cool, herbal, and lightly spiced.

Summary

A cold Holland-gin sling preserving the family's toddy-derived structure.

L'Art du Shaker by Dominique Migliorero (1925, p.28)

1. Prepare following the Brandy Sling method, replacing brandy with gin.

Cocktails by Pedro Chicote (1928, p.325) — Cold

1. Build in the glass, stir, finish with grated nutmeg, and serve.

Garnish: Grated nutmeg

Ice: 2 or 3 pieces of ice

This matters because it keeps the simple cold gin sling line alive beside the more lengthened highball forms.

The sling identity remains same-glass and nutmegged here.

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by Albert Stevens Crockett (1935, p.98)

1. Stir with spoon and grate nutmeg.

Ice: Ice

Café Royal Cocktail Book by W. J. Tarling (1937, p.234)

1. Serve in a long tumbler and fill with water.