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Monday, April 9, 2012

THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE


SHIRLEY TEMPLE
6 fluid ounces ginger ale, Sprite or any lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
1 dash grenadine syrup
1 maraschino cherry

When I was a child, my Dad was in the restaurant business and many a day, I sat on a barstool drinking a SHIRLEY TEMPLE — the cocktail named for the famous child actress —while waiting for him to finish talking to someone or another. I thought I was so cool sitting at the bar with my cocktail and I always thought it tasted great.

Since Shirley Temple’s birthday is coming up April 23rd and since April is Alcohol Awareness Month, I thought it’d be a good time to evoke some pleasant childhood memories with a SHIRLEY TEMPLE non-alcoholic mixed drink. And I’m glad I did. It was easy and tasty, and it allowed my 12 year old to join in on his Mom’s cocktail for a change.

To make the SHIRLEY TEMPLE, you just need ginger-ale, Sprite, or a similar pop (I used Sierra Mist), grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry. Fill a cocktail glass with ice, add the pop, a dash or two of grenadine, and the all-important cherry, and you’re done. When I was drinking them at the bar as a child, I had no idea how easy it had been for the bartender to whip it up.

The result is a sweet, thirst-quenching drink, that is really just fancied-up pop. Still, it can make a child, or a non-drinker, feel like part of the action. The 12 year boy in my house loved it and slurped it down quickly, “even though it’s a girl drink.” He even said he would choose it over a regular pop. Next time, I could make him a ROY ROGERS, the “boy” version of the SHIRLEY TEMPLE, by simply using cola instead of Sierra Mist.

Rumor has it that this cocktail was invented by a bartender at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, in the 1930s after Temple had requested a non-alcoholic cocktail. I’m glad it caught on and has stuck around from bars in Ohio in the 1970s to living rooms in Ohio in 2012. It’s classic!

Drink Up^
Cocktail Connie

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