Roy Rogers
ClassicCola and grenadine. The Shirley Temple's cowboy counterpart.
Cola's caramel and spice deepened by grenadine's pomegranate sweetness — richer and less bright than a Shirley Temple, closer to a cherry cola than a soda-fountain fizz.
Ingredients
- 6 oz Cola
- 0.5 oz Grenadine
- 1 Maraschino Cherry
- Maraschino cherry · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice.
- 2
Pour in the cola.
- 3
Add the grenadine and stir once, gently.
- 4
Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
The Story
Named for the "King of the Cowboys" himself, the Roy Rogers arrived as the boys'-menu answer to the girls'-menu Shirley Temple at mid-century American soda fountains and family restaurants — same grenadine-and-cherry treatment, swapped onto cola instead of ginger ale to feel a little more grown-up. It never had its own single origin story the way the Shirley Temple did, spreading instead simply as "the other kids' drink," and it has stayed exactly that ever since.