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Shirley Temple

Ginger ale and grenadine with a maraschino cherry — a bright, fizzy classic mocktail.

Difficulty
easy
Prep time
3 min
Strength
Alcohol-free
Glassware
Highball glass
Base
alcohol free
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • Ginger ale
    200ml
  • Grenadine

    Poured last so it settles

    15ml
  • Maraschino cherry

    One in the glass, extra for garnish

Garnish: Maraschino cherry

Scale for a party

Method

  1. Fill a highball glass with ice.
  2. Pour in the ginger ale.
  3. Add the grenadine slowly, pouring down the side of the glass or over a bar spoon so it sinks and creates a gradient.
  4. Drop in a maraschino cherry and let the drink settle for a moment before serving.

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

  • Bar spoon

    Household swap: Any long-handled spoon works, or pour slowly down a table knife held against the glass.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

  • Instead of Ginger Ale

    Best substitute: Soda Water

    This is the lengthener in this drink.

    Flavour impact: Drier and less sweet; add a touch more grenadine to keep the balance.

    What changes

    Soda Water moves the drink a long way — less sweetness, less acidity and less intensity. This is worth making deliberately rather than as a stand-in.

    Sweetness ↓
    Less sweetness leaves the acid and the spirit more exposed, so the drink will taste sharper and drier than it should.
    Acidity ↓
    Less acidity is the change people notice most and diagnose least — the drink goes flat and slightly cloying rather than obviously wrong.
    Intensity ↓
    A milder ingredient gets buried by whatever else is in the glass, and the drink loses the thing it was named for.
    Character
    Both are fizzy and light, and you lose mildly spicy and sweet, and you gain neutral and clean. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Add a little more syrup, a small amount at a time, until the edges come back together.
    • Add a little more of it, or a squeeze of fresh citrus, until the drink lifts again.
    • Increase the measure, or accept a gentler drink and reduce the components competing with it.
    Moderate confidenceWorkable but changes the drink's character noticeably, losing the ginger note.Makes a different drink

Want to change something these swaps do not cover — too sweet, too thin, a herb you dislike? How to adjust any mocktail works by what each component does rather than by ingredient name.

Make it better

  • Pour the grenadine slowly and low for the classic red-to-gold gradient — pouring fast just mixes it in.
  • Use a good-quality ginger ale rather than ginger beer; ginger beer's stronger spice overwhelms the grenadine.
  • Chill the glass and ginger ale beforehand so you don't need to add extra ice, which dilutes it fast.
  • Add the carbonated mixer last, after shaking or stirring the rest, and pour gently to keep as much fizz as possible.
  • Adjust sweetness gradually and taste as you go — it's easy to add more syrup, impossible to take it out.

Rescue this drink

Too sweet
Reduce the grenadine to 10ml.
Tastes flat
Use freshly opened ginger ale and avoid stirring — carbonation fades fast once disturbed.
Colours look muddy instead of layered
Pour the grenadine more slowly, low over a spoon, rather than dropping it straight in.
Too sourgeneral guidance
Add a little more sweetener (simple syrup or the cocktail's usual sweetening ingredient), a small amount at a time.
Served too warmgeneral guidance
Chill the glass, ice and every ingredient ahead of time — a warm pour is the fastest way to lose a cold drink's balance. For one serving, there's no real fix beyond rebuilding it properly chilled; for a batch, keep everything refrigerated until the moment of serving and add ice last.

Make ahead & storage

Batch the base, finish at serving

Batch the 2 stable components days ahead and add ginger ale when you pour.

Ginger ale:
Carbonated — it goes flat in a bottle, and there is no way to put the fizz back.

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

very sweet, gentle, very light, sparkling — a long and lengthened drink served long, over ice.

Very sweet

Dry → Sweet

A sweet drink by design — the sugar is a feature, not a fault.

What drives it: Grenadine — carries the most sugar into the glass.

Gentle

Soft → Sharp

A trace of acidity, there to lift rather than to be noticed.

What drives it: Ginger ale — supplies the acidity.

Very light

Light → Rich

Almost weightless in the mouth — closer to a long soft drink than to a sipper.

No single ingredient accounts for this — it comes from the combination rather than from one bottle.

Very sparkling

Still → Sparkling

Carbonated, which lifts the aromatics and makes the drink taste drier than its sugar content alone would suggest.

What drives it: Ginger ale — carries the carbonation.

Delicate

Delicate → Bold

Delicate. Rewards attention rather than demanding it.

What drives it: Ginger ale — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

  • GingerLeads

    From Ginger ale

Every aroma here comes from the liquid itself; nothing is layered on top.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. About 78% of this drink by volume has detailed ingredient data behind it; the rest falls back to broader category rules.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — each with the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

The fizz is the last thing in, and the first thing lost

Worth knowing

Carbonation escapes to warmth, agitation and anything it can cling to — pulp, sugar crystals, a dry glass wall.

How to handle it: Chill the mixer hard, pour it against the inside of the glass, add it last, and stir once at most.

  • It's too sweet

    Likely cause
    Grenadine is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
    What to change
    Cut grenadine by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a squeeze of citrus is faster than starting again.
    What that does
    It will taste drier and slightly thinner — sugar carries body as well as sweetness, so you lose a little weight along with it.

  • It tastes weak

    Likely cause
    With no alcohol to carry flavour and no heat to cut through, an alcohol-free drink has to work harder for the same presence — thinness here is almost never a measuring error.
    What to change
    Add acidity or bitterness rather than more fruit. Sweetness is what is usually already too high in a thin mocktail.
    What that does
    The drink gains definition without gaining sugar. It will also read as slightly sharper, which is what 'more presence' usually means in practice.

  • It's gone flat

    Likely cause
    Ginger ale loses gas to warmth, to agitation and to anything it can nucleate against — pulp, sugar crystals, a dry glass.
    What to change
    Chill the mixer properly, add it last, pour it against the inside wall of the glass, and stir once at most.
    What that does
    The bubbles last, which also makes the drink taste drier — carbonation contributes a real acidity of its own on top of the lift.

  • It doesn't smell of anything

    Likely cause
    This drink's aroma comes from ginger, carried in the liquid. Serving it too cold suppresses that: volatile compounds do not leave a very cold drink.
    What to change
    Let it sit for a minute before drinking, and use a glass that narrows towards the rim to concentrate what does escape.
    What that does
    More of the aroma escapes and the drink reads as more intense. The cost is temperature: a drink left to warm also dilutes faster, so this is a trade against how long it stays right.

  • It tastes one-dimensional

    Likely cause
    With 3 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a long and lengthened drink is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
    What to change
    Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: fresh citrus rather than bottled, a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
    What that does
    More going on at the same strength and sweetness. Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one.

Taste profile

Sweetness
4/5
Sourness
1/5
Bitterness
0/5
Strength
0/5
Fruitiness
3/5
Freshness
3/5
Creaminess
0/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate onlyEstimated from standard ginger ale and grenadine sugar content.
Calories
140 kcal
Sugar
34 g
Carbohydrates
35 g
Alcohol units (UK)
0
US standard drinks
0
ABV
0%
Serving size
240 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~0 kcal from alcohol, ~140 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 105–175 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Assumes 200ml regular (non-diet) ginger ale and 15ml grenadine.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

  • Roy Rogers

    The cola-based counterpart — replace the ginger ale with cola for a darker, less spiced version.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A built build: a long and lengthened alcohol-free drink, served long, over ice — sparkling in the mouth.

Long and lengthened

A short measure stretched with a mixer or juice — the drink's length, not its concentration, is the point of it.

  • Sweet element

    Grenadine

    A syrup — its whole job in the drink is to sweeten and to add a little body along with it.

  • Lengthener

    Ginger ale

    A long measure of mixer — this is what makes the drink long.

  • Garnish

    Maraschino cherry

    Listed as a garnish ingredient.

Drinks built this way are collected as the Highball family.

3 components' roles areworked out from the ingredient's category and recorded taste attributes rather than set by hand — the reasoning is shown above so you can disagree with it.

Technique

built

Components are poured into the serving glass over ice and stirred once, or not at all. Dilution happens while you drink rather than before.

The drink changes as you go: strongest at the first sip, longest and most diluted at the last. That drift is a feature of a long drink and a fault in a short one.

What it ruins: Nothing, but it cannot properly combine anything viscous — a syrup poured last will sit at the bottom.

Everything about building in the glass →How the technique works →

Dilution

In the glass, as you drink

Water from ice typically makes up around 15% of the finished drink for a built build (commonly 10–20%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Long, over ice

Highball glass · 240ml

Served on ice, so it keeps chilling in the glass. A larger, colder, slower drink than the same spirits served straight up.

Texture and aroma

Sparkling

Carbonation lifts aromatics and adds a slight acidity of its own, which is why a long drink can taste drier than its sugar content suggests.

No dedicated aromatic component — what you smell is the spirit itself, which is a deliberate choice in a drink this spare.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

Origin of the Shirley Temple

American mocktail dating to 1930s Hollywood, named for child star Shirley Temple.

Family

Highball

1 part spirit · 2–4 parts mixer — built in the glass over a full load of ice.

On drinks history

Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.

History and culture →

Try this next

Questions people ask

Why did my Shirley Temple turn uniformly pink instead of layering?
The grenadine was poured too fast. It is denser than ginger ale and will sink on its own, but only if it enters gently — pour it slowly and low, as the tips above describe. "Colours look muddy instead of layered" in the troubleshooting section covers the fix.
Can I use ginger beer instead of ginger ale?
You can, but it stops being a Shirley Temple. Ginger beer's heat overwhelms the grenadine, which is the drink's only other flavour. The tips above recommend a good ginger ale for exactly this reason.
Is a Shirley Temple suitable for children?
Yes — it is alcohol-free by construction, with no alcohol-free spirit substitute involved. Ginger ale, grenadine and a cherry are the whole recipe.

Use up your ingredients

Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.

Related tools

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

Recipe confidence

Long-standing, well-documented mocktail with a consistent format.

High confidence