Master The Classics: John Collins aka Tom Collins

Thanks to David Wondrich and his genius book Imbibe, we know a lot about the likely Origin of the Tom Collins which actually started it’s life as the John Collins. John Collins was a bartender who served a particular Gin Punch served at The Prince Of Wales Coffee House in Limmer’s Hotel. John Collin was a London Native born in 1770 and was in charge of the Coffee room from 1807 to 1843, a year or two before his death. The drink seemed to jump the pond around 1850 when it emerged in New York thanks to a British Officer of the Royal Artillery who purportedly taught it to the boys behind the stick at the Clarendon Hotel. According to Wondrich by 1865 it was being mentioned in print and before too much time had elapsed became an indispensable summer drink. Then in 1876 the same drink appeared in the second edition of Jerry Thomas’ How To Mix Drinks under the name Tom Collins for whatever reason, maybe Mr. Thomas thought the new name had better ring? We don’t know, Wondrich chalks it up to the fact that America is a large country and things “echo strangely in all that space.” A little while after that the drink got thrown in with a Joke which appeared in 1874 wherein someone would pick a sucker and tell them that a guy named Tom Collins was going around town badmouthing them and they should go straighten him out. This Tom Collins just happened to be at a bar down the street. So the sucker would march down the street to the bar and ask for Tom Collins and the bartender would send him somewhere else and basically just send them on a wild goose chase in search for the culprit Tom Collins. The drink then got caught up in the Tomfoolery and was then forever known as the Tom Collins I guess. And the rest is history as they say.
Tutorial Starts: 3:47
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Here's The Specs:
2oz. (60ml) Old Tom Gin
.75oz. (22.5ml) Lemon Juice
.75oz. (22.5ml) Simple Syrup
1.5oz. (45ml) Soda Water
Lemon and Cherry Garnish