Highballs and long drinks · Gin
Tall, cold and bright with lemon, this is a gin sour stretched with soda so it lasts through a warm afternoon. No shaker needed, just a tall glass, plenty of ice and fresh citrus.
1¾ oz
London dry gin or Old Tom gin for a softer, historic stylee.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
¾ oz
lemon juice
½ oz
simple syrup
top up with
soda water about 60 to 80 ml, well chilled
Garnish: Lemon wheel and cherry · Ice: Ice cubes
Tom Collins
Clean and zesty, with lemon tartness balanced by light sweetness, gin botanicals in the background and a lively fizz. Refreshing rather than strong.
The Collins family started with the John Collins, a gin punch associated with a head waiter of that name at Limmer's Hotel in London in the early 19th century. In America the drink took the name Tom Collins, and one explanation often given is that it was made with Old Tom gin, the slightly sweetened style popular at the time.
The name got a famous boost from the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, a practical joke that swept New York and other cities: people were told that a man named Tom Collins had been insulting them around town, and they went looking for him in bars, where a bartender could hand them a drink of that name. Jerry Thomas printed a Tom Collins recipe in the 1876 edition of his bar guide, and the drink has been a standard ever since, lending its name to the tall, straight Collins glass.
A Tom Collins is built tall over ice with more soda. A Gin Fizz is shaken hard, served without ice in a smaller glass and topped with less soda.
London dry gin gives a crisp drink; Old Tom gin, the historic choice, gives a softer, slightly sweeter one.
You can, but fresh lemon juice and simple syrup taste far cleaner and take only a minute to prepare.
The perfect sound
Tall, fizzy and cheerfully classic.
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