Tom Collins cocktail

Tom Collins

Alessandro Scire Calabrisotto

Tall, golden and impossibly refreshing, the Tom Collins is summer in a glass. Gin, lemon, a whisper of sugar and a long pour of soda over ice — it is the original grown-up lemonade, fizzing gently in a frosted highball. Few drinks are as effortlessly elegant, and fewer still have a backstory quite as mischievous as this one.

History of the Tom Collins

The drink takes its name from one of the strangest episodes in cocktail history: the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874. The joke, which swept New York and beyond, involved telling a friend that a man named Tom Collins was in a nearby bar loudly insulting them — sending the victim storming from saloon to saloon in search of a man who did not exist. Bartenders, ever quick-witted, are said to have begun serving a drink by that name to anyone who came in demanding “Tom Collins.”

The recipe itself owes a debt to John Collins, a 19th-century bartender associated with Limmer's Hotel in London, whose gin punch was already well known. As the serve crossed the Atlantic and evolved — particularly with the use of Old Tom gin — the name Tom Collins stuck. A printed recipe appeared in Jerry Thomas's influential bartending guide later in the 1870s, cementing its place in the canon.

Recipe: How to Make a Classic Tom Collins

Ingredients:

  • 50 ml (1.7 oz) gin
  • 25 ml (0.85 oz) fresh lemon juice
  • 15 ml (0.5 oz) sugar syrup (1:1)
  • Soda water, to top (about 60 ml / 2 oz)
  • Ice cubes, to fill

Instructions:

  1. Add the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup to a shaker filled with ice.
  2. Shake briskly until well chilled, around 10 to 15 seconds.
  3. Strain into a tall Collins glass filled with fresh ice.
  4. Top with chilled soda water and stir gently once to combine.
  5. Garnish and serve immediately, with a straw if you like.

Tips for Perfection:

  • Always use fresh lemon juice — bottled juice will flatten the drink's bright character.
  • Add the soda last and stir gently to preserve as much sparkle as possible.
  • Chill your glass first so the long drink stays crisp from first sip to last.

Additional Recommendations

Variations:

  • John Collins — the same build made with whiskey instead of gin.
  • Vodka Collins — a cleaner, more neutral take using vodka.
  • Elderflower Collins — a splash of elderflower liqueur for a floral lift.

Pairings:

  • Lightly salted potato crisps or twice-cooked chips.
  • Fresh oysters or seafood on ice.
  • A summery goat's cheese and herb salad.

Presentation:

  • Glassware: serve in a tall, chilled Collins glass to show off the long, sparkling pour.
  • Garnish: a lemon wheel and a maraschino cherry, perched on the rim or dropped inside.

Curiosity: A Fun Fact About the Tom Collins

The Collins glass — the tall, narrow tumbler found in bars everywhere — is named directly after this drink. Order a Tom Collins and you are, in a small way, ordering the very glass it helped make famous.

Sources

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