This Is The Only Way To Make A Shirley Temple

Ginger ale is the only acceptable soda for a Shirley Temple. There, I said it. The first time I tried one was at Hunan Manor, my favorite childhood Chinese restaurant. Enjoying my egg rolls and lo mein alongside sweet grenadine, spicy ginger ale, and maraschino cherries speared on a colorful paper umbrella, was transformative. A true, core memory.

I've tried Shirley Temples with Sprite and 7UP, of course. Never intentionally, just by the bartender's choice. But I can always tell. Those subpar, lemon-lime concoctions have no business calling themselves a Shirley Temple. An insult to the beverage world, the soda flavor is too sweet, mild, and flat — unable to stand up to the grenadine. Grenadine is supposed to come from pomegranate juice, but the stuff you find today is just saccharine, artificially flavored, dyed syrup. Without ginger ale's spicy kick, there's nothing to balance that sweetness. Add in those maraschino cherries and it's an extra sugar bomb. 

A Shirley Temple with Sprite or 7UP is cloying, one-note, and forgettable. A Shirley Temple with ginger ale, on the other hand, has depth. It's more bubbly, gently spiced, and the perfect amount of sweet. The grenadine shines without overwhelming your palate and the cherries taste better after soaking in the right soda.

Back in the 1930s, the original Shirley Temple was made with ginger ale. As the story goes, actress Shirley Temple and her family were dining at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood. Her parents sipped Old Fashioneds, and when she complained about also wanting a drink with a cherry in it, a bartender mixed up a mocktail with ginger ale, grenadine, and cherries so she wouldn't feel left out. With ginger ale, a Shirley Temple is a timeless indulgence. With Sprite (which wasn't brought to the U.S. market until 1961) or 7UP (initially used as an antidepressant), it's just soda with syrup pretending to be something it's not.

And one more thing: 7UP disrespected its namesake by going against Temple's wishes. The company made a limited-edition canned version of the iconic drink 10 years after Temple died — and 7UP's Shirley Temple did nothing for our tastebuds. It turns out that Temple actually hated the drink named after her. She didn't want any beverage company profiting off of her name, and actually filed civil lawsuits against those that tried. Strike three.

If you want to mix up your mocktail, sure, there are acceptable options. You can give your Shirley Temple a bougie twist by making it a dirty Shirley with a shot of vodka or even champagne. But, regardless of how you decide to riff on your Shirley Temple, there's only one way to make it: with ginger ale.