The Tom Collins
The Godfather of all gin cocktails.
Part of the Collins family of cocktails which take a base spirit, citrus and sweetener, and lengthen it with soda. This is a delightful afternoon tipple and so easy to make!
Ingredients
60ml (2oz) Old Tom gin (a London Dry will also work)
30ml (1oz) fresh lemon juice
15ml (1/2oz) sugar syrup
Good ice
Soda water
Lemon twist to garnish
Cherry to garnish (optional)
Equipment
A highball glass
A jigger
A bar spoon (if you feel fancy!)
Method
Prep your twist (and skewer your cherry if using).
Add gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup to chilled highball glass. Fill to just under halfway with soda water. Pack in as much ice as possible, and top with a splash more soda water if necessary.
Give it a stir and garnish with lemon twist and cherry.
Suggested Spirits
Old Tom gin is a sweeter style of gin which was popular around the same time as the Tom Collins came to be (hence the name!). It fell out of fashion as distilling improved- no need to mask a faulty base spirit with sweeteners- and so is harder to find nowadays. We’re using Hayman’s Old Tom here, which is one of the most widely available, but if you can’t get your hands on it then any classic London Dry (Tanqueray, Plymouth, Beefeater etc) will work. It will just be a dryer finish so you may want to add 5-10ml more sugar to round it out.