Vodka Collins
A tall, effervescent vodka highball built with fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, and soda water — a cleaner, spirit-neutral take on the classic Tom Collins.
- 2 ozvodka
- 1 ozfresh lemon juice(freshly squeezed)
- ¾ ozsimple syrup
- 2 ozclub soda
- Lemon wheel and cherrygarnish
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The Tom Collins is among the oldest named highball cocktails in American history, first documented in Harry Johnson's 1882 Bartenders' Manual and connected to a celebrated 1874 New York hoax in which people were told a man named "Tom Collins" was speaking ill of them in a nearby bar. The original recipe called for Old Tom gin, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water served in a tall glass. As vodka displaced gin as the dominant American cocktail spirit during the 1950s and 1960s, bartenders substituted it in well-established templates, producing the Vodka Collins. The substitution appealed to drinkers put off by gin's juniper-forward character, delivering the same effervescent lemon-sugar-soda structure with a neutral, cleaner spirit base. The Vodka Collins became a standard menu offering across American bars and restaurants through the 1970s and 1980s.
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