Shirley Temple
A hotel bar is judged as much by the drinks without alcohol as by the ones with it. On any given night the room holds guests who are driving, guests who are pregnant, Muslim guests, wellness travellers on a dry month and, at Sunday brunch and weddings, a table of children who want what the adults are having. The Shirley Temple is the drink most of them will order, and it is the one most bars get wrong by pouring soda from the gun over a squirt of red syrup. Made properly, with a grenadine you cooked yourself from pomegranate juice, cold ginger ale poured so the syrup sinks and layers into a sunrise, and a real cherry on top, it is a drink a seven year old remembers for life and an adult is happy to hold at a party. It takes 90 seconds and the same discipline you would give a Collins. Nothing about it is difficult. Everything about it shows.
Specification
| Ingredients | Amount | Role in the glass |
|---|---|---|
| House grenadine (pomegranate syrup) | 15 to 20 ml | Sweetness, tart red fruit and the deep ruby colour. Real grenadine is pomegranate, not red corn syrup. 15 ml for adults, 20 ml for children |
| Ginger ale, well chilled | 150 ml | The body of the drink. Gentle ginger warmth and carbonation that keep the syrup from tasting flat. Chilled to 2 to 4 °C before it goes anywhere near the glass |
| Lemon lime soda (optional split) | 60 ml in place of 60 ml ginger ale | The American style. Brighter and sweeter, less ginger. Use the split when a guest asks for it or when children find ginger ale too spicy |
| Fresh lime or lemon juice (optional) | 10 ml | The hotel bar touch. Acidity that cuts the sugar so the glass finishes clean instead of sticky. Leave it out for very young guests |
| Ice | Cubed, 3 to 4 cm, to fill the glass | Chills and holds the layers. Large cubes melt slowly so the last sip is still fizzy |
| Cocktail cherries and orange wheel | 1 to 2 cherries, 1 wheel | The cherry is the point of the drink for a child. Use dark amarena style or quality maraschino, never the neon dyed kind |
Technique
- Chill the highball glass and keep the ginger ale in the fridge at 2 to 4 °C, never on the back barWarm soda loses its gas the moment it hits ice. Cold soda over cold ice is the difference between a lively drink and a flat sweet one
- Fill the glass to the top with cubed ice and tip out any meltwaterMeltwater is uncontrolled dilution. A full glass of ice also means less soda volume moving around, so it stays fizzy longer
- Pour 150 ml of ginger ale first, down the inside of the tilted glass, leaving 2 cm at the topPouring down the glass wall instead of onto the ice keeps the carbonation. Soda goes in before syrup so the grenadine can sink through it
- Measure 15 to 20 ml of grenadine with a jigger and pour it slowly down the inside of the glass or over the back of a bar spoonGrenadine is denser than soda, so it sinks to the bottom and creates the red to gold sunrise gradient the guest sees first. Pouring it in fast mixes it and you lose the layers
- Add 10 ml of fresh lime juice if using, then lift once, gently, with a bar spoon from the bottom of the glass. Do not stir round and roundOne lift blends just enough for the first sip to taste balanced while keeping the gradient. Stirring hard knocks out the carbonation and turns the whole glass one flat pink
- Spear 1 to 2 cherries on a pick, rest them across the rim with the orange wheel and serve at once with a straw for childrenThe cherry is what the child was promised. A straw keeps the drink from being knocked over and lets a small guest drink without tipping a full highball
Service
Origin
The Shirley Temple is named after the child film star who was the biggest box office draw in America between 1935 and 1938. The story every version agrees on is that the little girl was out at a restaurant with adults drinking Old Fashioneds and needed a cocktail of her own, so a bartender put grenadine into a glass of ginger ale and dropped in a maraschino cherry to echo the cherry in the grown up drink. Where that happened is disputed and no receipt or menu from the period has ever been produced. Three establishments claim it: Chasen's, the Hollywood restaurant that opened in 1936 and fed the film industry for six decades; the Brown Derby, the hat shaped landmark on Wilshire Boulevard and its Hollywood sister; and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, where the Temple family holidayed. Temple herself gave the credit to the Brown Derby in a 1986 radio interview and added that she had nothing to do with it. She did not like the drink. She called it saccharine sweet and icky, and she disliked that waiters served it to her unasked for the rest of her life. In 1988, by then Shirley Temple Black and a former United States ambassador, she sued to stop a company selling a bottled soda under her name, telling the court that all a celebrity has is their name. The soda itself has drifted. The oldest descriptions use ginger ale; by the second half of the twentieth century lemon lime soda, or half of each, had become common in the United States, and which one was in the very first glass has never been settled. The drink spawned a family: the Roy Rogers with cola for boys who thought the pink glass was for girls, and much later the adult Dirty Shirley with vodka, which went viral in the summer of 2022.
Taste and body
First the nose meets ginger and a touch of orange from the wheel. The first sip is tart pomegranate and sugar, then the soft heat of ginger ale and fine bubbles. With house grenadine the finish is clean, slightly bitter red fruit that fades in about 10 seconds. With the lime it is close to a soft drink version of a sour. Body is light, carbonation medium. The colour must be a gradient from deep ruby at the bottom to pale gold at the top when it arrives at the table. A uniform flat pink means it was over stirred or built in the wrong order. Made with commercial red syrup it tastes of candy and nothing else, which is exactly why Shirley Temple herself called it icky.
Pairs well with
- Eggs Benedict and other brunch dishes with hollandaise
- Buttermilk fried chicken and waffles
- Mini burgers, sliders and children's menu food
- Fish and chips, the ginger cuts the batter
- Salty snacks such as popcorn, pretzels and fries
- Fresh fruit platters and light vanilla desserts
Hotel bar variations
- Roy Rogers · Cola in place of ginger ale, 15 ml grenadine, same cherry. Named after the singing cowboy and marketed from the start as the version for boys. Darker, sweeter, the ginger replaced by caramel and vanilla
- Dirty Shirley · Adults only. The classic build plus 45 ml of vodka poured before the soda. Went viral in the summer of 2022 and is now a standard order at hotel pool bars. Serve it in a different glass so it cannot be mistaken for a child's drink
- Shirley Temple Black · Adults only. The classic build plus 45 ml of dark rum, named after Shirley Temple's married name. Richer and warmer, the molasses of the rum sits well with pomegranate
- Shirley Ginger · Ginger beer in place of ginger ale plus 15 ml of fresh lime. Spicier, cloudier and far less sweet, a grown up glass for a guest who wants no alcohol but real ginger heat. Technically a Moscow Mule without the vodka and with grenadine
- Sunset Shirley · 30 ml of fresh orange juice added before the soda, 120 ml ginger ale, grenadine poured last. A three band sunrise of red, orange and gold. Popular at wedding receptions because of how it photographs
Common mistakes
- Using commercial red grenadine. Most bottled grenadine is corn syrup, citric acid and red dye with no pomegranate at all. It tastes of candy and is the reason the drink has a bad name
- Soda from the gun at room temperature. The gas is gone in 30 seconds and the drink is sweet, flat and warm. Bottled or canned ginger ale from the fridge, opened for that glass
- Grenadine in first, then soda on top, then a hard stir. You lose the sunrise layers, knock out the bubbles and end up with a uniform pink glass that looks like a soft drink
- Neon dyed cherries with stems in artificial syrup. Use dark amarena style or a quality maraschino cherry. The cherry is the first thing a child eats and the first thing a parent judges
- Treating it as a throwaway order. A slow Shirley Temple at a wedding table with 6 children is the one drink 6 sets of parents will remember. Give it the same 90 seconds of care as a Collins
Bartender's notes
Make your own grenadine and the drink changes completely. The simplest method is 250 ml of 100% pomegranate juice and 250 g of white sugar warmed gently in a pan, never above 60 °C, stirred until the sugar dissolves. Keeping it under 60 °C preserves the fresh fruit aroma; boiling it turns it into jam syrup. A few drops of orange blossom water is optional and gives the classic French aroma. Bottle it, label it with the date and keep it refrigerated for 2 to 3 weeks. For a deeper colour and more tannin, reduce 500 ml of juice by half first, then add sugar 1:1 by weight to the reduced juice. On the floor, ask a parent quietly whether they want the full sweet version for the child or the lighter one with lime. Adults who order a Shirley Temple usually want the lime version and 15 ml of syrup, and they appreciate being asked. At weddings and brunch, pre batch the grenadine in a squeeze bottle and pre chill 24 cans of ginger ale so a round of 10 can go out in under 3 minutes without anyone shaking a soda gun.
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Frequently asked questions
What is in a Shirley Temple?
Grenadine, ginger ale and a maraschino cherry, built over ice in a highball glass. Many bars in the United States use lemon lime soda or half ginger ale and half lemon lime soda. A hotel bar version adds 10 ml of fresh lime juice to balance the sugar. It contains no alcohol.
Who invented the Shirley Temple?
Nobody knows for certain. It was created in Hollywood in the 1930s for the child star so she could have a cocktail while the adults drank Old Fashioneds. Chasen's restaurant, the Brown Derby and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu all claim it. Shirley Temple herself credited the Brown Derby and said she had nothing to do with it.
Did Shirley Temple like the drink named after her?
No. In a 1986 interview she called it saccharine sweet and icky, and she disliked being served it without asking wherever she went. In 1988 she sued to stop a bottled soda from using her name.
Ginger ale or lemon lime soda?
The oldest descriptions say ginger ale, which gives a gentler, drier and more grown up glass. Lemon lime soda became common later and is sweeter. Which one was in the first glass has never been settled. Hotel bars usually default to ginger ale and switch on request.
What is real grenadine?
Pomegranate syrup. The name comes from the French word grenade, meaning pomegranate. Most commercial grenadine contains no pomegranate at all, only corn syrup and red dye. A house version is 250 ml of pomegranate juice and 250 g of sugar warmed under 60 °C, refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.
Why does it separate into layers?
Grenadine is heavier than soda because of its sugar. Poured slowly after the soda, it sinks to the bottom and creates a gradient from red to gold. One gentle lift with a bar spoon keeps the layers while blending the first sip. Stirring hard turns it a uniform pink.
Is a Shirley Temple suitable for children and pregnant guests?
Yes. It contains no alcohol, so it is served to children, pregnant guests, drivers and anyone who does not drink. For young children leave out the lime juice. Serve it with a straw.
What is a Dirty Shirley and a Roy Rogers?
A Dirty Shirley is the same drink with 45 ml of vodka added, for adults only, and became popular in 2022. A Roy Rogers is the same idea with cola instead of ginger ale, historically the version served to boys. Both are made the same way, built over ice with the grenadine poured last.
