Tom Collins

The Tom Collins is a spiked, sparkling lemonade. Adjust the quantity of lemon juice depending on how tart you like your lemonades to be.

This recipe can be made with any style of gin: London Dry Gin, Genever or Old Tom Gin.

Tom Collins variations usually change the first name to something that indicates the spirit being used: Juan Collins (Tequila), Colonel Collins (Bourbon), Pierre Collins (Brandy), and so on.

If you want to elevate your Tom Collins, consider adding a small amount (15ml) of your favorite liqueur (i.e.: crème de mûre, Chambord) or amaro (i.e.:Amaro Montenegro, Cynar).

Likewise, you can replace the simple syrup with something else, for instance, try it with Raspberry syrup.

The Tom Collins is likely to be a variation on a Gin Punch. The Punch is considered to be the father of all cocktails, where all cocktails derive from.

In its early days, the Tom Collins used Genever or Old Tom Gin. As London Dry Gin became more prevalent, it took the place of these older styles of gin in the Tom Collins.

The most common story surrounding the creation of the recipe involves a bartender named John Collins, who worked at Limmer’s Hotel in London. The bar was famous for its Gin Punch, and there’s a possibility that Collins made a variation of the recipe and named it after himself.

The oldest printing of the recipe is from Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual (1882), in which he lists both a John Collins (using Genever) and a Tom Collins (using Old Tom Gin)

In the 1884 book, The Modern Bartender’s Guide by O. H. Byron there is a drink called a "John Collins' Gin”, it also contains a “Tom Collins’ Brandy”.

The second edition of Jerry Thomas’ The Bartenders Guide (1887) lists three Tom Collins recipes: Tom Collins Whiskey, Tom Collins Brandy and Tom Collins Gin.

In 1874 there was a widespread prank in some major cities in the US where people would start a conversation asking “Have you seen Tom Collins?”, when the listener responded that they didn’t know anyone named that way, the speaker would assert that this Tom Collins was talking about them somewhere nearby (“just around the corner”, or at the local bar).

The Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, as it was later named, would try to induce people to rush to find this Tom Collins who was speaking ill of them. It was so widespread that even newspapers further propagated it by printing stories containing false sightings of Tom Collins.

The Collins glass was created in the 1800s to serve the Tom Collins cocktail, hence its name. It’s different than a highball glass in that it’s more narrow and taller.