Elderflower Collins

Gin, lemon, elderflower, and soda — the Collins (1874 NYC practical joke, Thomas's 1876 guide) given elderflower via St-Germain (Cooper, French Alps, 2007).

The Elderflower Collins is a botanical variation on the Tom Collins — one of the most durable long-drink formats in American bartending history — that replaces or supplements the standard simple syrup with elderflower liqueur or cordial, adding a floral, honey-scented dimension to the classic gin-lemon-soda structure. The Tom Collins acquired its name through a New York City social phenomenon in 1874: a widespread practical joke in which people were told that a man named Tom Collins had been speaking ill of them at a nearby bar, sending them on fruitless quests to confront the fictional slanderer. The format — gin, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water in a tall glass — was already established before the hoax gave it its name, but Jerry Thomas's 1876 revised Bar-Tenders Guide codified it. Elderflower liqueur entered the cocktail world primarily through St-Germain, the artisanal elderflower liqueur launched in 2007 by Robert Cooper and the Cooper Spirits Company, made from hand-picked Sambucus nigra blossoms harvested in the French Alps during a brief annual window when the flowers are at their aromatic peak. The product's success drove broader awareness of elderflower as a cocktail ingredient and established the gin-elderflower pairing as a modern standard. The Elderflower Collins represents the most direct application of this pairing to the existing Collins framework.