Tom Collins
Encyclopedia
The Tom Collins is a type of Collins cocktail
made from gin
, lemon juice
, sugar
and carbonated water
. First memorialized in writing in 1876 by "the father of American mixology" Jerry Thomas, this "Gin and Sparkling Lemonade" drink typically is served in a Collins glass
over ice.
, Pennsylvania
, and elsewhere in the United States would start a conversation with "Have you seen Tom Collins?" After the listener predictably reacts by explaining that they did not know a Tom Collins, the speaker would assert that Tom Collins was talking about the listener to others and that Tom Collins was "just around the corner", "in a [local] bar," or somewhere else near. The conversation about the nonexistent Tom Collins was a proven hoax of exposure. In The Great Tom Collins hoax of 1874, as it became known, the speaker would encourage the listener to act foolishly by reacting to patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality. In particular, the speaker desired the listener to become agitated at the idea of someone talking about them to others such that the listener would rush off to find the purportedly nearby Tom Collins. Similar to The New York Zoo hoax
of 1874, several newspapers propagated the very successful practical joke by printing stories containing false sightings of Tom Collins. The 1874 hoax quickly gained such notoriety that several 1874 music hall songs memorialized the event (copies of which now are in the U.S. Library of Congress).
The recipe for the Tom Collins first appeared in the 1876 edition of Jerry Thomas' "The Bartender's Guide". Since New York based Thomas would have known about the wide spread hoax and the contents of the 1876 published book were developed during or right after The Great Tom Collins hoax of 1874, the hoax event is the most plausible source of the name for the Tom Collins cocktail. Classified under the heading "Collins" with similarly named whisky and brandy drinks, Jerry Thomas' Tom Collins Gin instructed:
) was imported into the United States at that time at a ratio of approximately 6 liters to every liter of English London Dry Gin.
and elsewhere. Identified as 'a favorite drink in demand everywhere' in the 1878 edition of The Modern Bartender's Guide by O. H. Byron, both Tom Collins gin and whiskey and Tom Collins brandy were considered fancy drinks. In 1891, the emulsifying
sweetener, gum syrup, was replaced in the recipe by sugar and the use of Old Tom gin
, a lightly sweetened Gin popular in 18th-century England. In the 1891 book, The Flowing Bowl: When and what to Drink, author William Schmidt listed the Tom Collins as including:
recipe subsequently replaced the lemon juice with lime juice.
In August 1891, British physician Sir Morell Mackenzie wrote an article in the 19th Century influential magazines Fortnightly Review
to establish England as the originating country the Tom Collins cocktail and a person named John Collins as its creator. In the article, Mackenzie quoted an old song, the title of which he indicated to be "John Collins." However, the British weekly magazine Punch
immediately disparaged Mackenzie's efforts, noting in August 1891 that the title of the song actually was "Jim Collins" and that Mackenzie otherwise inaccurately quoted and characterized the song. In an attempt to clarify the issue, American writer Charles Montgomery Skinner
noted in 1898 that the Tom Collins made its way to the "American Bars" in England, France, and Germany, where the American invention stimulated curiosity in Europe and served as a reflection of American art.
As time passed, interest in the Tom Collins diminished and its origins became lost. Early on during the 1920s Prohibition in the United States
, the American
journalist
and student of American English
H. L. Mencken
noted:
:
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
made from gin
Gin
Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
, lemon juice
Lemon juice
The lemon fruit, from a citrus plant, provides a useful liquid when squeezed. Lemon juice, either in natural strength or concentrated, is sold as a bottled product, usually with the addition of preservatives and a small amount of lemon oil.-Uses:...
, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
and carbonated water
Carbonated water
Carbonated water is water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, a process that causes the water to become effervescent....
. First memorialized in writing in 1876 by "the father of American mixology" Jerry Thomas, this "Gin and Sparkling Lemonade" drink typically is served in a Collins glass
Collins glass
A collins glass is a glass tumbler which typically will contain 10 to 14 fluid ounces . It is used to serve mixed drinks, especially Tom Collins cocktails. It is cylindrical in shape and narrower than a highball glass.- External links :*...
over ice.
History
In 1874, people in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and elsewhere in the United States would start a conversation with "Have you seen Tom Collins?" After the listener predictably reacts by explaining that they did not know a Tom Collins, the speaker would assert that Tom Collins was talking about the listener to others and that Tom Collins was "just around the corner", "in a [local] bar," or somewhere else near. The conversation about the nonexistent Tom Collins was a proven hoax of exposure. In The Great Tom Collins hoax of 1874, as it became known, the speaker would encourage the listener to act foolishly by reacting to patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality. In particular, the speaker desired the listener to become agitated at the idea of someone talking about them to others such that the listener would rush off to find the purportedly nearby Tom Collins. Similar to The New York Zoo hoax
The New York Zoo hoax
The New York Zoo hoax is also known as The Central Park Zoo Escape and the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874. It was a hoax perpetrated by the New York Herald about a supposed breakout of animals from the Central Park Zoo on November 9, 1874....
of 1874, several newspapers propagated the very successful practical joke by printing stories containing false sightings of Tom Collins. The 1874 hoax quickly gained such notoriety that several 1874 music hall songs memorialized the event (copies of which now are in the U.S. Library of Congress).
The first recipe
Jerry Thomas' Tom Collins Gin (1876)This was distinguished from the Gin Fizz cocktail in that the 3 dashes of lemon juice in the Gin Fizz was "fizzed" with carbonated water to essentially form a 'Gin and Sodawater' whereas the considerably more "juice of a small lemon" in the Tom Collins essentially formed a 'Gin and Sparkling Lemonade' when sweetened with the gum syrup. The type of gin used by Thomas was not specified in his 1876 book, but likely was Holland gin rather than English London Dry Gin since Jerry Thomas' Gin Fizz (1862) called for Holland gin and Hollands Gin (Jenever
(Use large bar-glass.)
Take 5 or 6 dashes of gum syrup.
Juice of a small lemonLemonThe lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
.
1 large wine-glass of ginGinGin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
.
2 or 3 lumps of iceIce cubeIce cubes are small, roughly cube-shaped pieces of ice, conventionally used to cool beverages. Ice cubes are often preferred over crushed ice because they melt more slowly; they are standard in mixed drinks that call for ice, in which case the drink is said to be "on the rocks."Ice cubes are...
;
Shake up well and strain into a large bar-glass. Fill up the glass with plain soda water and drink while it is lively.
Jenever
Jenever , is the juniper-flavored and strongly alcoholic traditional liquor of the Netherlands and Belgium, from which gin evolved...
) was imported into the United States at that time at a ratio of approximately 6 liters to every liter of English London Dry Gin.
Popularity
By 1878, the Tom Collins was being served in the bar rooms of New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and elsewhere. Identified as 'a favorite drink in demand everywhere' in the 1878 edition of The Modern Bartender's Guide by O. H. Byron, both Tom Collins gin and whiskey and Tom Collins brandy were considered fancy drinks. In 1891, the emulsifying
Emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible . Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Although the terms colloid and emulsion are sometimes used interchangeably, emulsion is used when both the dispersed and the...
sweetener, gum syrup, was replaced in the recipe by sugar and the use of Old Tom gin
Old Tom Gin
Old Tom Gin is a lightly sweetened Gin popular in 18th-century England that now is rarely available. It is slightly sweeter than London Dry, but slightly drier than Dutch/Holland Gin/Jenever, and is thus sometimes called The Missing Link.The name Old Tom Gin purportedly came from wooden plaques...
, a lightly sweetened Gin popular in 18th-century England. In the 1891 book, The Flowing Bowl: When and what to Drink, author William Schmidt listed the Tom Collins as including:
Tom Collins Gin (1891)One turn of the century
The juice of half a lemon in a large glass,
a bar-spoonfulBar spoonA bar spoon is a long handled spoon used in bartending for mixing and layering of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic mixed drinks. Its length ensures that it can reach to bottom of the tallest jug or tumbler to mix ingredients directly in the glass. A bar spoon holds about 5 millilitres of liquid...
of sugar,
a drink of Tom gin; mix this well;
2 lumps of ice,
a bottle of plain soda.
Mix well and serve.
Turn of the century
Turn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a non-specific time period either before or after the beginning of a century....
recipe subsequently replaced the lemon juice with lime juice.
Confusion in the origin
Fortnightly Review
Fortnightly Review was one of the most important and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000; the first edition appeared on 15 May 1865...
to establish England as the originating country the Tom Collins cocktail and a person named John Collins as its creator. In the article, Mackenzie quoted an old song, the title of which he indicated to be "John Collins." However, the British weekly magazine Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
immediately disparaged Mackenzie's efforts, noting in August 1891 that the title of the song actually was "Jim Collins" and that Mackenzie otherwise inaccurately quoted and characterized the song. In an attempt to clarify the issue, American writer Charles Montgomery Skinner
Charles Montgomery Skinner
- Newspaper career :Skinner was born in Victor, New York. His career in literature and journalism included editorship of the Brooklyn Eagle. His study of the paper’s famed Walt Whitman appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1903.- Writings :...
noted in 1898 that the Tom Collins made its way to the "American Bars" in England, France, and Germany, where the American invention stimulated curiosity in Europe and served as a reflection of American art.
As time passed, interest in the Tom Collins diminished and its origins became lost. Early on during the 1920s Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and student of American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
noted:
"The origin of the ... Tom-Collins ... remains to be established; the historians of alcoholism, like the philologists, have neglected them. But the essentially American character of [this and other drinks] is obvious, despite the fact that a number have gone over into English. The English, in naming their drinks, commonly display a far more limited imagination. Seeking a name, for example, for a mixture of whiskey and soda- water, the best they could achieve was whiskey-and-soda. The Americans, introduced to the same drink, at once gave it the far more original name of high-ballHighballHighball is a type of alcoholic drinkHighball may also refer to:* Highball glass, a drinking vessel* Highball Wilson , professional baseball pitcher* the British Highball bouncing bomb project from World War 2...
."
Modern mix
The 1986 The Book of Cocktails provides a modern take on Thomas' 1876 recipe for this long drinkLong drink
A long drink or tall drink is an alcoholic mixed drink with a relatively large volume . In Finland, the term refers to a type of premixed, ready to drink alcoholic beverage....
:
John (or Tom) Collins (1986)
ice cubes
2 oz. dry gin
2 oz. lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar (gomme) syrup
soda water
slice of lemon
1 colored cherry
Place ample ice in large glass. Add gin, lemon juice and syrup. Top up with soda water and stir well. Serve with lemon slice, cherry and a straw.
Other "Collins" Drinks
There are several other cocktails made in the same fashion and with the same ingredients as the Tom Collins, with the exception of the base liquor (gin in a Tom Collins).- Brandy Collins — with brandy (cognacCognacCognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has been built on the river's left bank, with the smaller right...
, armagnacArmagnac (drink)Armagnac is a distinctive kind of brandy or eau de vie produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of Armagnac grapes, including Baco 22A, Colombard, and Ugni Blanc, using column stills rather than the pot stills used in the...
or similar) - Juan or José Collins - with tequilaTequilaTequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
- Jack Collins — with applejackApplejack (beverage)Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, popular in the American colonial period.Applejack was historically made by concentrating hard cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation or by true evaporative distillation. The term applejack derives from jacking, a...
- Jake Collins — with ginGinGin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
and 2oz pineapple juice, topped up with soda water and a cherry. - John Collins — with bourbonBourbon- Food and drink :* Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash* Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit* A beer produced by Brasseries de Bourbon* Bourbon coffee, a type of coffee made from a cultivar of coffea arabica...
or rye whiskyWhiskyWhisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn... - Michael Collins — with Irish whiskeyIrish whiskeyIrish whiskey is whiskey made in Ireland.Key regulations defining Irish whiskey and its production are established by the Irish Whiskey Act of 1980, and are relatively simple...
, named for the IrishIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
leader Michael CollinsMichael Collins- Politics :* Michael Collins , Irish Labour party politician, Lord Mayor Of Dublin 1977–1978* Michael Collins , Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician... - Ron Collins — with rumRumRum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
(popular with tourists in Cuba), based on the Spanish word ron for "rum" - Sandy Collins or Jock Collins — with ScotchScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
whisky - Vodka Collins or Comrade Collins — with vodkaVodkaVodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
- Phil Collins — with 7-Up or SpriteSprite (soft drink)Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...
. - Jallu Collins - with Jaloviina. Enjoyed among mainly FinnishmenFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. - Grand Orange Collins - with Grand Marnier, orange juice, lemon juice, Simple Syrup and club soda
- Russell Collins - with Jägermeister
- Sherron Collins - with large splash Orange Juice
- Harry Collins - with Whisky, ginger beer and lime juice instead of lemon.