Earliest Sling Reference (1759)
First recorded definition of a Sling, from Israel Acrelius' "History of New Sweden", published in 1759, as translated from Swedish into English:
"Long-sup or sling was one half water and one half rum with sugar in it to taste."
According to David Herpin
the above reference is ridiculous seeing as it directly correlates with the stonewall (stonewall jackson) and the civil war drinks like (corpse reviver) and Sling (like an arm sling)
he Sling itself appears as early as Punch: Volume 38 - Page 133 by Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor in 1800 "As for refreshment, there were certainly four of us but as I remember paying for five kidneys, three Welsh rarebits, and a chop, to say nothing of bitter ale and gin sling"
In the May 13, 1806, edition of the Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York "Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters — it is vulgarly called a bittered sling"
We know from the previous article on the collins that, a collins and a sling were considered the same drink. But was a cocktail a sling also? No
Although the cocktail appears in literature as early as shakespear, the sling may predate the cocktail. The Sling is used as a reference for both the description of a cocktail and a collins and bitters was not a readily available ingredient when the sling was supossively composed, This would explain why the sling contains no bitters and a cocktail does.
The Sling would be categorized as the proprietor to the cocktail, and not just a sibling. in Jerry Thomas's how to mix Drinks in 1862. This sling is listed as a brandy sling (hot).
The Big blue union. (Marysville, Kan.) June 06, 1863 "not a rum sling; no, nor a gin sling ; no, it was a sling made with whiskey"
The Sling atleast contained these ingredients as of 1800 but may date earlier: Technique: Build - Meaning the drink is prepared in the same glass that it is served in. Ice: N/A Served: Hot Glassware or Vessel: Mug Agent(s): Simple Syrup (Sugar and Water) Base Spirit: Brandy
"Maryland Journal", 21st May 1788
"Rum, Whiskey, Brandy, Gin, Stinkibus, Bitters, Toddy, Grog, Slings and fifty other liquors all come under the denomination of spirits".
"After lunch, your former amusements are resumed, until the sun loses a little of its intensity, when bonnets and shawls are called into requisition, and you stroll to the "boiling-house" to see the preparation of sugar-boiling going on, and taste the "sling," (the name given to the sugar when in its liquid state,)"
Travels in South and North America, by Alexander Marjoribanks, 1853
"Toddy they call sling; thus they have gin-sling and whisky-sling."
Beverages, Past and Present, by Edward Randolph Emerson, 1908
"Manathan was small beer, rum, and sugar. Long-sup or sling was one half water and one half rum, with sugar in it to taste."