Classic Cocktail 10

If you’re a gin fan, then most probably you would have liked the previous article on the While Lady. But if you’re a Gin and Tonic kind of person, well there is a cocktail that’s quite similar to the White Lady and will make you look a tad bit more sophisticated than ordering your standard, generic mix. G&T people, next time try ordering a Tom Collins.

The original name of this cocktail and the name used today can create some confusion. However, this can be cleared up by just noting the timeline carefully for history of the drink.

In the 1965 Dictionary of Drink and Drinking by Oscar Mendelsohn credited this cocktail to a talented waiter-bartender by the name of John Collins. This man worked at the Limmer’s Hotel in London and was well known with his gin punches. Limmer’s Hotel was famous for its gin punch that combined gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur and chilled soda water¹. In the 1950s, New York bartenders were being introduced to a John Collins gin punch, though the recipe was lost, it was said to be similar to the gin punch at London’s Garrick Club.

So when did John Collins (the cocktail) started to be called Tom Collins? John Collins was a gin based drink that used genever² and when genever gin was replaced with Old Tom Gin, that was when the drink’s name was changed to Tom Collins. We are uncertain when that change was made but can be sure that happened prior to the New York famous Tom Collins Hoax in 1874.

The cocktail is served in a tall glass of what is called a Collins glass.

Variations

Today, John Collins is known to be a cocktail of the same structure only that the gin is replaced with American bourbon. To add to the confusion, there is another drink called the Gin Fizz which has the same concoction but served in a rock glass. The only difference between a Gin Fizz and a Tom Collins is that a Gin Fizz is a shaken and strained drink whereas the latter is a built drink (Footnote 6: A “built drink” is a cocktail where all the ingredients are mixed directly in the glass) And if you substituted the lemon juice for lime juice in a Tom Collins, you’ll get a Gin Rickey.

The recipe to make your very own Tom Collins:

Ingredients
45ml London Dry Gin
30ml Sugar syrup
20ml Lemon juice
Soda Water

Method
BUILD all ingredients into a tall highball or Collins glass. Garnish with a lemon slice and maraschino cherry.

1. This recipe was quite similar the Gin Punch by London’s Garrick Club around the 1870s, which consisted of raspberry syrup, powdered sugar, water, gin and lemon juice.
2. Also called Jenever, Holland gin or Dutch gin.
3. Tom Collins Hoax was popularly used on the street of New York where one can be asked, “Have you seen Tom Collins?” and the hoax recipient would be told that a Tom Collins was talking about him to others and was waiting for him around the corner of a particular bar
4. Tom Collins became a class of drink and many variations were created after that. Many new concoctions in the class use tall glass and retain the “Collins” as part of their names. There was enough in common in the drinks which were served in that glass that it gained its name