Classic Shirley Temple Drink Recipe

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This classic Shirley Temple Drink recipe brings back fond childhood memories. As a child, I was delighted to be served a Shirley Temple drink garnished with maraschino cherries on a skewer. They are so simple to make and kids love them.

Shirley Temple Recipe

The origins of this drink cannot be confirmed due to conflicting accounts, but one origin story is that in the late 1930’s a bartender at Chasen’s, a restaurant in West Hollywood, California, invented the mocktail to server to the young Shirley Temple. However it also could have been invented at the Brown Derby restaurant also in Los Angeles, California.

What’s in a Shirley Temple Drink?

A Shirley Temple is a non-alcoholic drink consisting of ginger ale, a splash of grenadine, ice, and maraschino cherries. This simple base makes it a great candidate for substitutions and additions allows you to endlessly tweak it to your taste. When making these fun drinks, a tall Collins glass is traditionally used but you can use whatever fun glass you want! Don’t forget to garnish a fun skewer.

Here are some tweak you can make:

You can swap the ginger ale with a lemon-lime soda to give it a zesty citrus flare.

Another option is to use cherry juice instead of the ounce of grenadine.

For fun, I like to offer different flavored syrups. It is perfect for kid’s birthday parties served in a punch bowl with a fruit-flavored ice ring.

To make this drink healthier omit ingredients that contain corn syrup.  Also replacing some of the ginger ale or lemon-lime soda with orange juice.

If you plan you can add a splash of grenadine and cherries to your ice cubes for a special garnish. I found a large variety of healthier grenadine syrups online thus I will be ordering some for my next mocktail party.

 

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What is Grenadine?

Grenadine is a sugary pomegranate syrup with zero alcohol making is perfect for kids drinks and mocktails.

You can buy Grenadine in most grocery stores. It is generally sold in 12oz bottles and is usually near the club soda in the liquor aisle.

Grenadine generally last around 4 months opened and stored in the fridge before going bad. 

How to make a Shirley Temple

To make a Shirley Temple, I like to start by filling a tall glass with ice cubes.

1. Next I fill a shot glass 3/4 full with Grenadine and pour that in the glass.
2. I then fill the glass with ginger ale or lemon-lime soda or a combination of both if I am feeling adventurous.
3. Finally, I garnish the Shirley Temple with Maraschino cherries. You can either just place them on top or put them on a skewer first.

To add a little pizzazz you can add more garnishes like a wedge of lime on the rim or lime slice in the drink.

Dirty Shirley Drink

To make this mocktail a cocktail you can add vodka or a light rum to it.

1. I would make this by filling a tall glass with ice and pouring 1 ounce of vodka (or rum) over the ice.
2. Next, Top of the glass with your choice of ginger ale or lemon-lime soda or a combination of both.
3. Then drizzle grenadine over the top to taste and stir.
4. Now add garnish with cherries and enjoy!

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If you are looking for a little something stronger then you will enjoy adult spiked version known as a Dirty Shirley.  Our not so virgin Shirley Temple can be found in another post here. My sister and I loved Shirley Temples so much when we were young we have to the adult Shirley.

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Thank you so much for your visit today. I hope you have found some inspiration.

Bon appétit,

Kippi