Tom Collins

The Tom Collins is rooted in the John Collins, a gin punch served at Limmer's Hotel in London in the early nineteenth century and named for a headwaiter there. The 'Tom' name is usually tied to Old Tom gin, the lightly sweetened style of gin originally called for, distinguishing it from the John Collins made with genever or, later, dry gin. The drink's American fame was boosted by the 1874 'Great Tom Collins Hoax,' a widespread practical joke in which people told a victim that a man named Tom Collins was nearby slandering him, sending him searching from bar to bar — a craze that put the name on everyone's lips and likely helped popularize the cocktail. Jerry Thomas published a Tom Collins recipe in the 1876 edition of his influential bartending guide.

Crisp, tart, and bubbly, with bright lemon up front, the juniper and botanicals of gin underneath, and a soft sweetness rounding it out. The soda water makes it long, light, and effervescent rather than strong, the carbonation lifting the aromatics with every sip. It is genuinely thirst-quenching, sour-leaning but balanced, and finishes clean and dry. Served ice-cold in a tall glass, it drinks like a sophisticated sparkling lemonade.

The Tom Collins is a sour built long with soda: the classic sour ratio balances spirit, citrus, and sugar, and topping with soda water stretches it into a tall, low-strength cooler. The gin, lemon juice, and sugar are shaken hard with ice first — shaking aerates and chills a citrus drink, mixing the cloudy juice and giving it a lively, slightly frothy texture that stirring cannot — and only then is the soda added, because shaking carbonated water would make it flat and dangerous in a sealed shaker. Building it in a tall, narrow Collins glass over fresh ice preserves the carbonation longer, and the bubbles continuously carry the volatile gin botanicals and lemon oils up to the nose.