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How to make a Tom Collins (2023)

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Do you know Tom Collins? The Tom Collins is a gin cocktail made with lemon juice, sugar and soda water served in a collins glass over ice.

Let’s jump into our Tom Collins recipe.

Tom Collins in tumbler posed with London Dry Gin and lemon.
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Tom Collins

Ingredients

  • 2 Oz Old Tom Gin Can be substituted for London Dry.
  • 1 Oz Lemon Juice Freshly squeezed.
  • 0.5 Oz Simple Syrup Adjust for preferred sweetness.
  • 2 Oz Club Soda Use more if desired.

Instructions

  • Add gin, lemon juice and sugar/syrup in a shaker with the 2 ice cubes. Shake until chilled.
  • Pour club soda into the mixer to the desired level.
  • Double strain entire cocktail over a remaining ice in a tall glass.
  • Garnish with a citrus wedge and Maraschino cherry.

How you use your soda is up to you. Instead of pouring into the mixer, you can pour half into the serving glass and top off the cocktail with the other half. Pour off the ice to avoid having the soda water layering on top on the gin and juice mix. I learned this technique in a Youtube video by Epicurious featuring Jeff Solomon.

Experiment with different approaches to see what you like best.

The Time Tom was John

I’d like to preface this part of the article by saying cocktail history is difficult to pin down with certainty. Wikipedia cites John Collins, head waiter of Limmers Hotel in 1815 as being the creator of a punch that consisted of Gin, lemon juice and club soda over ice. It’s likely the punch was named after John Collins and Genever was used in the earliest versions of the recipe.

The 1974 Tom Collins Hoax

A newspaper clipping from the 1870s about Tom Collins and his preferred hat brands.
The Tom Collins Hoax was a viral sensation. Headlines featured advertisements promoting hat and cigar brands preferred by the fictitious Tom Collins.

Bartender drink historian George Sinclair wrote for the Class Magazine in 2006 explaining the background story of the Tom Collins. People would start conversations with “Hey, have you seen Tom Collins?” “You know Tom Collins?” After the being met with confusion and being advised the person didn’t know a Tom Collins, the instigator says, “Tom Collins is at the bar around the corner.” This bizarre conversation spawned the Tom Collins Hoax which saw New York men sprawling bars to track down Tom Collins who was talking about them. Local papers joined in the hoax publishing stories of Tom Collins sightings, presenting an early form of viral marketing. Headlines featured advertisements promoting hat and cigar brands preferred by the fictitious Tom Collins.

An aged bottle of Old Tom gin from 1950.
Pictured: A 1950 bottle of Old Tom gin produced by Boord & Son

While difficult to confirm, there is speculation that some opportunistic bartenders renamed the John Collins due to the hoax. This does fit the story, as Genever was replaced by Old Tom gin when it reached the United States.

The Return of Old Tom

The Old Tom gin in the Tom Collins became scarcer during the 20th century and was replaced by London Dry gin. Many years later, Old Tom made a comeback during the “Cocktail Renaissance” of 1990 and distilleries started to produce Old Tom once more so we know have not one, or two but three different Tom Collins variants since its creation.

So have you heard of Tom Collins? Please consider sharing this and more cocktail recipes on my growing recipe page!

References

  1. Emily Bell The Great Tom Collins Hoax Of 1874 That Birthed The Famous Drink | VinePair April 22 2016
  2. Jeff Solomon for How To Mix Every Cocktail | Epicurious (Tom Collins) March 24 2020
  3. Image credit Cameron Collins The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874 – Distilled History March 9 2014
  4. Image credit Boord’s Old Tom Gin – Bot.1950s : Buy from The Whisky Exchange
Norman