I LOVE THE mysterious drinks — the ones that you think you know everything about, but in actuality you know very little.  The Tom Collins is one of those mysterious drinks everyone thinks they know, but when it comes down to it, all they really know is that it tastes pretty good.  But, what else should we know?  Let’s do a little digging.

First, the Tom Collins is one of many drinks from a class of drinks known as Collinses.  A Collins, by definition, is a tall sours that is related to a fizz.  A sours is a drink made with lemon juice, sugar, and liquor.  The ingredients must be mixed in a shaker and then poured into a glass.  A fizz is a sours made using the same ingredients with the addition of soda water.  It is also shaken.  This is what gives it the fizz characteristic.  A Collins has the same ingredients as a fizz, but the ingredients are stirred in the glass rather than shaken.  It’s then garnished with a lemon wedge and a cherry.  Specifically, a Tom Collins is lemon juice, sugar, gin and soda stirred in a tall glass, known as a Collins glass, and garnished with a lemon wedge and a cherry.

The history of the Tom Collins dates back to the early nineteenth century.  It was once thought that it was created by a bartender named John Collins who purportedly worked at Limmer’s Hotel in London.  This turns out not to be true since there is no evidence that anyone named John Collins ever tended bar at Limmer’s.  What is known is that the recipe for a drink called a John Collins first appeared in Haney’s Steward & Barkeeper’s Manual in 1869.  In 1876, the Collins was introduced as a category of drinks in Jerry Thomas’ Bar-tender’s Guide.  I have a copy of the 1867 edition of Jerry Thomas’ Bar-tender’s Guide.  It lists a drink called a Gin Punch.  The ingredients are a pint of old gin, a gill of maraschino, the juice of two lemons, four ounces of syrup, and one quart of German seltzer water.  Obviously, this was intended to be served to more than one person, but it’s also obviously a Collins.  For the gill impaired, a gill is a unit of measurement equal to a one-quarter of a pint or 118.2937 ml.

You’re probably confused by the name John Collins.  This is understandable.  The original name of the drink was, in fact, John Collins.  However, over time it became Tom Collins.  The reason for this isn’t known, but it has been suggested that connoisseurs of this fine beverage preferred the name Tom Collins for their favorite cocktail and over time the name change was accepted by all.  What I believe happened is that one of the key ingredients in one of the original recipes was the catalyst for the name change.  That ingredient was Old Tom Gin, a lightly sweetened gin that was popular in 18th-century England.  It’s rarely seen today, but it is often referred to as the missing link in the evolution of gin.  It’s slightly sweeter than London Dry Gin, but slightly drier than Holland Gin.  I believe that Old Tom Gin was popular enough during the late 1800’s that, for some, it made sense to call a John Collins a Tom Collins since Old Tom Gin was what gave the cocktail its kick.  It is also thought that the word of mouth passing of the name of this popular drink somehow caused the name change.  Similar to the way the story gets changed as a rumor passes from person to person.  This is all speculation of course, but it is also very plausible.

As with all popular cocktails, the Tom Collins has evolved over time.  The first recipe for a Tom Collins that I could find was the one that I listed above.  It appeared in print in 1867 and was not called a Tom Collins.  By 1876, Jerry Thomas had introduced the Collins class of drinks and included among his recipes a Tom Collins Gin cocktail.  This cocktail was made by combining five or six dashes of gum syrup, the juice of a small lemon, a large wine-glass of gin and two or three lumps of ice into a large bar-glass.  The cocktail was shaken and then topped with soda water.

By 1878, the Tom Collins was being served everywhere.  Its popularity was unmatched and the recipe began to evolve again.  I found a recipe from 1891 that actually calls for Old Tom Gin.  It also lists a bar-spoonful of sugar rather than gum syrup and a drink of Old Tom Gin as opposed to a large wine-glass of gin.  I’m not sure what those measurements mean, but my guess is that they are both far larger than a shot.

These days, a Tom Collins consists of two ounces of dry gin, two ounces of lemon juice, one teaspoon of simple syrup, soda water, a slice of lemon and one cherry.  To make it, fill a Collins glass with ice, add gin, lemon juice and simple syrup.  Top with soda water and stir.  Use the slice of lemon and the cherry as a garnish.  It’s very simple to make and very refreshing on a hot summer day.

So, there you have it — the Tom Collins dissected.  Things are so much simpler when you break them down scientifically.  It should be noted that these days, if you order a John Collins, you will get a Collins cocktail made with bourbon rather than gin.  This is hardly the same cocktail that you would have received in 1869, but as we’ve seen, things do change over time.  As usual, when enjoying any of the Collins class of cocktails, please drink responsibly.