Raspberry Collins

A long, refreshing gin Collins brightened with crème de framboise — tart lemon, sweet raspberry, and soda over ice.

The Raspberry Collins is a fruit-forward modern variation on the Tom Collins that substitutes raspberry liqueur or fresh raspberry for the standard simple syrup, adding berry sweetness and color while preserving the Collins format's essential refreshing structure of gin, acid, sweetener, and soda water. The Tom Collins was codified in Jerry Thomas's 1876 revised Bar-Tenders Guide after the name became associated with the format through a New York City social hoax in 1874, though the basic preparation — gin, citrus, sugar, soda — had existed under various names for decades. Crème de framboise — French raspberry liqueur produced by macerating fresh raspberries in neutral spirit and sweetening the result — was a standard French liqueur producer offering through the early 20th century, with Marie Brizard (whose company was founded in Bordeaux in 1755) among the most historically significant producers. The raspberry's flavor chemistry — primarily from the ketone raspberry ketone (4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone) combined with various esters — produces an aromatic profile that is simultaneously sweet, tart, and distinctly fruity, interacting with gin's botanical character in a complementary way that plain sugar does not achieve. Fresh raspberry muddled or blended directly into a Collins build produces a more textured, less sweet result than a commercial liqueur, with the seeds' slight tannin and the berry's fresh-fruit acidity adding complexity.