Summers are great, it’s the most specific season there is, and yet there are drawbacks to it, but they all become bearable when you have a proper drink in your hand. The heat gets extinguished with a proper cocktail, resetting your body like a dive into a pool, and while cases can be made for the Mojito, Dark and Stormy, or Pina Colada, the Tom Collins is a must for the summertime. Mostly because the Tom Collins recipe is one of the easiest cocktails out there, one that can be made as quickly as a lemonade, and also one that you’ll be able to sip for a while.
Actually, the history of the Tom Collins drink is far more complicated than the act of making it itself, so we won’t be going into it, even though the Tom Collins hoax of 1874 is a worthy, short read.
Tom Collins Cocktail Equipment
The importance of the Tom Collins is undeniable, as the glass you’re making it in is named after it, the Collins glass. You’ll also need a squeezer or just a strainer, either will work, so choose whichever you have laying around or prefer for making lemonade. A jigger or a shot glass with measuring lines is also needed.
Tom Collins Ingredients
– Gin
– Lemons
– Ice
– Soda water
– Sweet syrup
Since this is a summer cocktail, it is recommended that you chill your soda water, especially because this is not a cocktail that goes into a shaker, so it doesn’t get chilled heavily from the ice. The ingredients are pretty basic, household items, the only thing that can be confusing is the simple syrup, but it can be bought in a store or made at home with ease. It’s just sugar and water, in a ratio of 1:1, so for example, a half a cup of sugar, topped with half a glass of hot water, so the sugar will dilute. Just wait for the made syrup to cool off and you’re set.
Tom Collins Recipe
If you don’t have any experience in making cocktails it’s good fortune you choose to start with the Tom Collins as it is a breeze, it’s basically making an alcoholic lemonade.
Grab your Collins glass, you’ll be making the cocktail in it as well as drinking from it, and pour two ounces of gin into it. Proceed to build the cocktail by pouring three-quarters of an ounce of simple syrup. The same amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice should join the party in the glass.
Put as much ice in the glass as it can fit to the top, these should naturally be big cubes. Now just top the glass with soda water and there’s no need for shaking or stirring.
Since this is a summer drink served in a long, big glass, it needs a nice garnish, using lemons or oranges is allowed, just make sure you don’t cut to fat of a slice, it needs to be almost weightless. Put the slice on top of the liquid, not on the edge of the glass, and for the very end put either a cherry or a mint leaf on top. You can use a crystal pick to put the fruits together, or not, it’s up to you, that’s the beauty of mixing.
Since the Collins is such an easy, simple cocktail to make, various variations of it exist, so you can just pour bourbon instead of gin, or tequilla.
Did you like this Tom Collins recipe? It is a classic for a reason and a must in any professional or amateur mixer’s arsenal.
