By Kara Mae Adamo
Today, let’s talk about a guy named John.
In 1860, John was employed as the head waiter at a popular restaurant called Limmer’s Old House in the Mayfair Hotel on Conduit Street, bordering Hyde Park in London. There, among the bustle of Victorian-era England and it’s pomp and class, he created a gin-based drink using lemon, gin, and sparkling water.
Then, John named it after himself.
Nine years later, a cocktail historian named David Wondrich published a book called the Steward and BarKeeper’s Manual where he mentions John’s drink, along with other versions of what were referred to as gin punches that had grown popular in Europe throughout the first part of the 19th century.
Now let’s push it forward another 5 years and cross the pond while’ we’re at it.
In New York, it became popular to screw with your friends while drinking at a bar and telling them that some dude named Tom Collins was talking smack. They would start off by saying, “Have you seen Tom Collins?” and the proceed to whisper whatever terrible thing Tom was saying about the person.
The idea was to really get the person steamed: to rile them up so completely that they went looking for Tom at the next bar over. Newspapers began publishing sightings of Tom: this incredible douche bag that gossiped and slandered ever person in every burrow across the city.
There was no Tom, of course, but it was hilarious to watch people fall for it and, soon, the joke spread like a wild fire. Everyone in the country was doing it and eventually it became known as the Tom Collins Hoax of 1874.
So, what does this have to do with John?
2 years after the joke, a guy named Jerry Thomas, who we in the booze world consider the father of American mixology, published his own book. He called it The Bartender’s Guide and in it he included a recipe for John’s cocktail.
The thing is, Jerry thought the Tom Collins Hoax was hysterical. So instead of giving John the credit for his drink, he named it a Tom Collins instead. The drink, an amazing fusion of lemon and sugar and gin and bubbles, went more viral than the joke itself and poor John more or less lost the credit for his creation, which is now enjoyed all over the world.
These days, people order it not knowing that it’s named after a joke but was really sort of named after a waiter back in London.
The best kind of gin to use for a Tom Collins? Old Tom.
About a hundred years before John Collins or the Tom Collins Hoax, people in England were out of control. They were drinking gin constantly. At some point, the government–seeing what they themselves created–tried to step in and do something about it. They raised taxes on gins and tried to get in the way of licensing, but all that did was encourage people to sneak around about it.
So, public houses would hang wooden signs in the shape of black cats above their doors. Under the cat’s paw, there was a lead tube and, next to that, a little slot where people could put money in. The bartender inside the pub would take the money and slide a shot of gin through the tube.
This gin, slightly sweeter than traditional London Dry gins, was eventually called Old Tom Gin, named after the “tomcat” shaped signs.
Here is the recipe for a Tom Collins:
Take 1 ounce of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 an ounce of simple syrup, and 1.5 ounces of your favorite Old Tom gin. Shake these together in a shaker about 4-5 times and then strain them into a collins glass over fresh ice. Slip one or two lemon wheels into the glass and top the rest of it with club soda.
It’s incredibly refreshing for the summer and sort of belongs in the same family as the immensely popular French 75. Enjoy it.
Until next time,
Cheers.
Kara Adamo is a bartender, booze nerd, and booze writer. She is the author of Fancy Grape Juice: De-Snootifying the World’s Snootiest Beverage; Artimals: Coloring the Whimsical Wild; and Brews & Hues: A Coloring Book About Beer. Adamo currently lives in Washington DC.
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