In vogue, on trend, fashionably cool.
However you want to put it, the Dirty Shirley is coming to the fore in 2023, and may well be the drink of the summer that we look back on and reminisce about our first summer of full freedom in 3 years.
With that in mind, you need to be all clued up on what a Dirty Shirley is, and how to make one better than any of your friends.
What is a Dirty Shirley?
In short, it’s everyone’s favorite mocktail (the Shirley Temple), spiced and sexed up with booze (vodka, as this case would have it).
The Shirley Temple was a sweet, nonalcoholic drink made for the child actor after whom it was named on her 10th birthday.
Generally understood to be a mix of soda, grenadine, and ginger ale, the Shirley Temple is a sweet drink, with a slight kick that prevents the sugary profile from being overpowering to the point of unpleasantness.
The Dirty Shirley is the same drink, just splashed with vodka to give you that booze-laden kick characteristic of sweet, summer sunshine drinks.
What’s in a Dirty Shirley Temple? The Main Dirty Shirley Ingredients
For this one, I’m going to recommend starting with Absolut Vodka.
There are so many different twists and flavors available (we’ll go into detail on that later) that it gives you the perfect point to get going.
Then you’ll need some soda (or lemonade, if you want to really embrace the sweetness), ginger ale, grenadine, and maraschino cherries for your garnish.
Whether you choose soda or lemonade really depends on your flavor profile.
If you really have that sweet tooth then lemonade is going to make this Dirty Shirley Temple really fizz. If you prefer your drinks with a slight punch, use soda and add a bit more ginger beer.
To add a little bit of a sophisticated twist, I’m going to recommend using Sicilian Lemonade instead of Sprite or Schweppes.
It’s less carbonated and a little less sweet so will balance out the sugary taste of the grenadine perfectly while letting the ginger ale take care of the fizz.
How to Make a Dirty Shirley (aka an Alcoholic Shirley Temple)
Enough about what a Dirty Shirley Temple is, here’s how to make one your friends can only dream of pulling off this summer:
Step One: Chill and Prep
Get yourself either a rocks glass or a highball, and fill it with ice.
If you’ve got an hour or so before making the drink, put your glasses in the freezer to really bring the chill in. If not, 5 minutes or so filled with ice will be plenty.
Make sure to discard the ice before you build your drink though!
Step Two: Build and Stir
Add 2 ounces vodka, 2 ounces Sicilian Lemonade, and 2 ounces Ginger Ale to your glass.
A simple ⅓, ⅓, ⅓ ratio is going to bring the best out of all your flavors and make your drink the most balanced.
As you make more and more of these, you can experiment with the ratio to find your favorite, but stick with simplicity for your first try.
Then, fill your glass with ice and stir gently, making sure to mix everything together.
Step Three: Grenadine and Garnish
Your Dirty Shirley is almost ready to go, it just needs a few final touches before you’re sipping in the sunshine.
Drizzle an ounce of grenadine into your drink over the back of a bar spoon (or teaspoon, if you don’t have one).
This is going to give a beautiful sight of the grenadine cascading and falling through the drink. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and your drink is finished. Enjoy!
Twists on the Dirty Shirley Cocktail
The easiest way to put a spin on your Dirty Shirley is simply to use flavored vodka.
This is why I’ve recommended Absolut Vodka: it’s got such a variety of options that you can choose from without massively changing the profile of your Dirty Shirley Temple.
I’d recommend either cherry or raspberry Absolut to start you off. Make sure you keep the grenadine though or you’ll lose that sweetness that makes the Dirty Shirley Temple a lovely, refreshing drink.
If this regular recipe doesn’t pack enough of a punch for you, consider swapping out the grenadine for some Luxardo Maraschino liqueur. You’ll keep the sweetness, but add more of a kick with that higher alcohol content.
The maraschino liqueur will perfectly pair with the vodka (or even flavored vodka) to keep the sugar rush and give you a classier, more Italian feel when mixed with the Sicilian Lemonade.
So now you’ve got it, the best way to concoct a Dirty Shirley Temple, probably the drink of the summer. Time to go out and make this vodka cherry modern classic!
If you like a good Dirty Shirley, you should also try a Tom Yum.
I started bartending in 2017, just 4 days after my 18th birthday, at a cocktail bar in my hometown. I immediately fell in love with the art and science of mixology and have since worked in bars across Yarm, York and Liverpool in England.