Tom Collins

Gin, fresh lemon, sugar, and soda — named for the Tom Collins social hoax that swept New York City in spring 1874 and published by Jerry Thomas in his 1876 guide.

The Tom Collins has one of the most specifically documented naming stories in cocktail history — not a celebrated bartender or a notable occasion, but a social hoax that swept New York City in the spring of 1874. The Great Tom Collins Hoax, as it was subsequently called, involved telling acquaintances that a man named Tom Collins had been at a nearby bar speaking disparagingly about them; the victim would rush to the bar demanding to confront Tom Collins, only to find no such person existed and that they were the butt of the joke. The hoax spread through Manhattan and then to other American cities through the summer of 1874, generating newspaper coverage and making the name Tom Collins temporarily ubiquitous. When Jerry Thomas published the cocktail's recipe in his revised 1876 Bar-Tenders Guide, the name was already so widely known that attaching it to a gin-lemon-sugar-soda long drink was a natural commercial gesture. The drink itself predated the name — the Collins format of spirit, citrus, sugar, and soda water in a tall glass had existed under various names since John Collins of Limmer's Hotel in London developed a similar preparation in the early 19th century. The Tom Collins became one of the most internationally reproduced gin cocktails of the 20th century and is recognized as a Contemporary Classic by the IBA.