Elderflower Collins
An Elderflower Collins is 45ml of gin, 20ml of elderflower liqueur and 25ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds, strained over fresh ice in a collins glass and topped with 90ml of soda, with a lemon wheel and a mint sprig. About 2.2 UK units. It is a Tom Collins with the sugar syrup replaced by elderflower liqueur, which sweetens and perfumes at once. The LWC catalogue describes St-Germain as the world’s first elderflower liqueur and dates its launch to 2007, and the Collins is an obvious frame to try such a liqueur in. Measure the liqueur. At 20ml the drink is floral and still tastes of gin; at 30ml the elderflower takes over and no extra lemon brings it back.
Glassware: Collins Glass
Garnish: Lemon wheel and Mint sprig
Ingredients
45ml
Around 40% ABV. A London Dry keeps juniper underneath the blossom; a floral contemporary gin doubles up on what the liqueur already brings.
20ml
Around 20% ABV, sweet and heavily scented, standing where sugar syrup would. Twenty millilitres perfumes the drink; thirty takes it over.
25ml
Squeezed the same day. A full 25ml keeps the blossom from turning sweet and gives the soda something sharp to lift.
90ml
Cold and freshly opened. Poured last, it lengthens the drink and carries the elderflower up to the nose.
Instructions
Add the gin, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Strain into a collins glass filled with fresh ice.
Top with the soda water and stir once.
Garnish with a lemon wheel and a slapped mint sprig.
Our version
The IBA lists no Elderflower Collins. Ours is 45ml of gin, 20ml of elderflower liqueur and 25ml of lemon, shaken, then topped with 90ml of soda over ice.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Hold the liqueur at 20ml. Elderflower behaves like rose water: past a point it stops seasoning the drink and becomes the drink. If you are unsure, pour less and add a barspoon after tasting. Shake the gin, liqueur and lemon hard for 10 to 12 seconds, then add the soda in the glass. Shaking anything fizzy flattens it, and the soda does its best work lifting the scent from a cold, freshly built glass. Slap the mint between your palms rather than muddling it. That wakes the oil without bruising the leaf, and the sprig works on the nose, not in the liquid.
Behind the Elderflower Collins
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The LWC catalogue describes St-Germain as the world’s first elderflower liqueur, made with white elderflower blossoms from the French Alps, and dates its launch to 2007.
In our view a new bottle gets tried in the templates bartenders already know, and the Collins is a forgiving long-drink frame. Gin, lemon, elderflower and soda work well enough to be a standard.
The Sweetener Swap
Structurally this is a Tom Collins with the syrup replaced by elderflower liqueur. The Gold Rush makes the same kind of move with honey, and the Army & Navy with orgeat.
A sweetener with a flavour of its own reorganises the drink around it. Elderflower sits naturally with gin’s botanicals, and against lemon it reads as floral rather than sweet.
The Measure
Twenty millilitres is the measure that holds. Sugar syrup shifts a balance gradually as you add more; elderflower behaves more like absinthe or rose water, where past a threshold it stops being an ingredient and becomes the whole drink.
At 20ml the glass is fully floral and still tastes of gin. At 30ml it tastes of blossom and little else.
Three Ways to Sweeten a Collins
The Elderflower Collins beside two relations
Elderflower Collins
- Gin
- 45ml
- Sweetener
- 20ml elderflower liqueur
- Lemon
- 25ml
- Long element
- 90ml soda
- UK units
- About 2.2
Tom Collins
- Gin
- 60ml
- Sweetener
- 15ml sugar syrup
- Lemon
- 30ml
- Long element
- 90ml soda
- UK units
- About 2.4
English Garden
- Gin
- 50ml
- Sweetener
- 20ml elderflower liqueur
- Lemon
- 20ml
- Long element
- 50ml pressed apple juice
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Gin | Sweetener | Lemon | Long element | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elderflower Collins | 45ml | 20ml elderflower liqueur | 25ml | 90ml soda | About 2.2 |
| Tom Collins | 60ml | 15ml sugar syrup | 30ml | 90ml soda | About 2.4 |
| English Garden | 50ml | 20ml elderflower liqueur | 20ml | 50ml pressed apple juice | About 2.4 |
For the sugar-syrup original, see the Tom Collins; for elderflower with pressed apple, the English Garden.
The Cordial Version
Elderflower cordial makes a good alcohol-free version, and it is a different build rather than a compromise. Cordial is sweeter than the liqueur and has less body, so start with 15ml and add more only after tasting.
How to Serve It
Shaken base strained over fresh ice in a collins glass, soda on top, one stir, a lemon wheel and a slapped mint sprig.
Tall and cold, in the garden by preference. Make one beside a Tom Collins and the difference a flavoured sweetener makes is plain in one sip.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Elderflower Collins?
How much elderflower is too much?
Can I use elderflower cordial or syrup instead?
How does it differ from a Tom Collins?
Who invented the Elderflower Collins?
Is an Elderflower Collins shaken or built?
How strong is an Elderflower Collins?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- LWC, “St Germain 70cl NRB” (wholesaler’s catalogue: “a very good elderflower liqueur made with white elderflower blossoms from the French Alps”; 20% ABV; “launched St-Germain, the world’s first elderflower liqueur, in 2007”).
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Tom Collins
A Tom Collins is 60ml London Dry gin, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml sugar syrup built over ice in a collins glass, topped with 90ml of cold soda and stirred once, with a lemon slice and a cherry. It is a collins in the plainest sense: spirit, citrus and sugar, topped with soda. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, reports one account that traces the name to the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, in which people in New York were told that a man called Tom Collins had been insulting them and could be found in a bar some distance away. It also gives accounts of a real Mr Collins. The drink the name attached to may be older: Difford’s credits John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s Hotel on Conduit Street in London, with the Collins. Early recipes used Dutch genever, and Old Tom gin came into them later; the IBA still specifies Old Tom for a Tom Collins. This version uses London Dry for a drier, sharper drink, and the Old Tom version follows as a variation.
Gin Basil Smash
A Gin Basil Smash is 60ml London Dry gin, 22.5ml fresh lemon juice, 22.5ml simple syrup and ten basil leaves. The basil is muddled firmly into the lemon and syrup, the gin goes in, and the drink is shaken hard, double strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass and finished with a basil sprig. In short, a bright green gin sour, at about 2.4 UK units. Punch, a secondary source, says Jörg Meyer, owner of Le Lion in Hamburg, first sold it as the Gin Pesto in spring 2008, and that Meyer counts 10 July 2008 as its birthday: the date of his post on the Bitters Blog about the drink re-christened the Gin Basil Smash. The IBA lists it among its New Era cocktails, measure for measure. The muddle decides it. Basil gives up its pepper and anise only under real pressure, and a timid press leaves a pale sour with a leaf in it.
Southside
A Southside is 60ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of fresh lemon juice, 15ml of simple syrup and five or six mint leaves, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a small mint sprig. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures; 15ml of egg white is optional. The Oxford Companion, in an entry by Eric Felten, says the story that it was born in the speakeasies of Chicago’s South Side is incorrect: the drink evolved from the Mint Juleps made at Snedecor’s Tavern on Long Island, which became the Southside Sportsman’s Club, and it has long been the house drink at New York’s 21 Club. The drink does not depend on any of that. In the glass it is a gin sour scented with mint. Shaken and served up, with no soda or crushed ice, it is more concentrated than a Mojito, and the mint reads as aroma rather than as leaves in the drink.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026