Grenadine, lemon and ginger ale — the drink most people meet first, made properly.
beClink Editorial·August 12, 2026
Time
3 min
Serves
1
Base
Grenadine
Glass
Highball, over ice
A Shirley Temple is ginger ale, grenadine and a cherry, and it has spent seventy years being made badly. The neon syrup is the problem — swap it for real grenadine made from pomegranate, add a squeeze of lemon to stop it going flat and sweet, and it becomes a drink you would order rather than one you were handed as a child.
Add the lemon juice, then top with ginger ale, poured down the side of the glass.
Pour the grenadine in slowly over the back of a spoon. It is heavier than the ginger ale, so it sinks and sits at the bottom in a layer.
Stir once if you want it an even pink all the way down, or leave it layered if you would rather see the gradient. Both are correct and bartenders disagree about it. Garnish with a cherry, or a raspberry.
Shop the Recipe
Everything you need to pour this
What we reached for, and what else works. Everything here is in stock — swap freely.
Grenadine
We used Giffard Grenadine Syrup.
From your kitchen: fresh lemon juice, ginger ale, ice cubes, cocktail cherry or a raspberry.
In this glass
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Make It Yours
Lemon-lime soda
The American original used it, and it is sweeter and less spicy than ginger ale. Cut the grenadine to 15ml.
Cola, and it is a Roy Rogers
Same drink, different soda, different name. Darker and less bright, and the grenadine has to work harder.
Ginger beer
Hotter and drier than ginger ale, which makes it the grown-up version by some distance.
Non-alcoholic sparkling wine
Grenadine under sparkling is a different and rather elegant drink. Half the grenadine, no lemon.
More lemon, first
Before you cut the grenadine. Most of what reads as cloying here is missing acid rather than excess sugar.
Two dashes of bitters
Aromatic or orange. It gives a sweet drink somewhere to end, and it is what separates this from a soft drink.
Soda water, half and half
Half ginger ale, half sparkling water. Longer, drier, and it still looks the part.
A real cherry
A dark morello or an amarena rather than the fluorescent kind. A spoonful of its syrup does no harm either.
Orange peel
Expressed over the surface. Pomegranate and orange belong together and almost nobody does it.
How to Serve & Pair
Tall, over a full glass of ice. Stirred through it is an even pink; left alone the grenadine sits at the bottom and the drink shades from clear to red. It is the drink children ask for, which is exactly why it is worth making properly — the grown-up version is the same recipe with real grenadine and a squeeze of lemon, and nobody has to be handed a different glass.
Common Questions
What is in a Shirley Temple?
Ginger ale, grenadine and a cherry, with a squeeze of lemon in better versions. It is named after the child actress, it contains no alcohol and never has, and the grenadine is a pomegranate syrup rather than anything alcoholic. The bright red color most people remember comes from dye rather than fruit.
What is the difference between a Shirley Temple and a Roy Rogers?
The soda. A Shirley Temple is built on ginger ale or lemon-lime; a Roy Rogers uses cola. Same grenadine, same cherry, and the two were named as a pair. The cola version is darker and less bright, and it needs a touch more grenadine to be tasted at all.
Why is mine too sweet?
Almost always the grenadine, and almost always the bought kind — the neon version is corn syrup and dye with very little pomegranate in it. Real grenadine is tart as well as sweet. Failing that, add lemon before you reduce anything, because acid is what a sweet drink is usually missing.
Can I make it in a jug for a party?
Mix the grenadine and lemon ahead and keep it cold, then add the ginger ale to each glass as you pour. Fizz mixed into a jug is flat before it reaches the table, and this is a drink where the bubbles are half the appeal.
From Scratch
