TOM COLLINS

TOM COLLINS

2 measures gin

Juice of half a large lemon

1 tsp sugar

Soda water

“Tom Collins please.” It sounds like such a nice, pleasant cocktail order. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a bartender to make my first TOM COLLINS. Instead, I made it at home despite a busy night. But it was worth it, because make a TOM COLLINS is easy and fun, and drinking it is even better.

The TOM COLLINS actually started out as a John Collins, named so after the head waiter at a London hotel who invented it in the early 19^th century. Poor John got his name replaced after people began to make the cocktail with Old Tom gin. Whatever you call it, to make the cocktail, start by putting gin and lemon juice into a tall glass that is half-filled with ice and, in an ideal world, frosted. Give the cocktail a stir, then add the sugar and stir it some more so that the sugar dissolves. Lastly, top the cocktail off with about a measure and a half of soda water.

If you like a gin fizz cocktail, you will love a TOM COLLINS. The ingredients are the same. The only difference is that a gin fizz is shaken and a TOM COLLINS is stirred and has a little less soda. Both cocktails are good, but I prefer the ease and taste of the Tommy one. It tasted like lemonade or lemon water with that special something that only gin can add. In fact, it’s my new favorite gin-based cocktail, and I’ve liked many of them this year. Lemon and gin are always a refreshing combination. The sugar cuts the sour and the lemon makes it all fine and dandy like cotton candy. If you haven’t visited the gin party in a while, RSVP for the TOM COLLINS.

Drink Up^

Cocktail Connie