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. The name comes from the Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, when people in New York and Pennsylvania were told that a man called Tom Collins was nearby, saying things about them. There was no Tom Collins. The drink the name attached to was older: London tradition credits John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s on Conduit Street, with a gin drink of the same shape. 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.
Variations
Glassware: Collins Glass
Garnish: Lemon slice and Luxardo maraschino cherry
Ingredients
60ml
A London Dry with clear juniper. In a build this plain, the style of the gin decides the drink more than any other single ingredient.
30ml
Squeezed the same day, ideally to order. In a long drink there is no concentration to hide oxidised juice behind.
15ml
One part sugar to one part water, by weight. The balance runs tart rather than sweet, and the syrup should support the lemon rather than soften it.
90ml
Well chilled, added last and poured gently down the inside of the glass. Flat soda makes a flat Collins.
Instructions
Squeeze the lemon juice the same day, ideally just before you build.
Fill a collins glass to the top with large cubed ice.
Add the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup over the ice.
Stir briefly to combine.
Pour 90ml of chilled soda water gently down the inside of the glass.
Stir once with a single upward lift of the bar spoon.
Garnish with a lemon slice and a Luxardo maraschino cherry, and serve with a straw.
Our version
We pour 60ml of London Dry with 90ml of soda where the IBA takes 45ml of Old Tom with 60ml, for a longer, drier drink in a British hiball.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Thirty millilitres of lemon looks generous for 60ml of gin, and it is deliberate. Ninety millilitres of soda follows it into the glass, and a sour balanced for a coupe tastes thin once that much water and gas has gone in. Measure the lemon rather than pouring by eye. Fill the glass to the top with ice before anything goes in. A full column of cubes melts slowly; three cubes in a tall glass melt fast and leave a warm, watery drink. Pour the soda gently down the inside of the glass and lift once with the bar spoon. Every extra stir costs carbonation, and flat soda makes a flat Collins whatever went in before it.
Behind the Tom Collins
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The drink is older than its name. London tradition credits John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s Old House on Conduit Street in Mayfair in the early nineteenth century, with a long gin drink, and a verse beginning “My name is John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s” kept him in circulation. The verse fixes the man; it does not fix the recipe. It was known as the John Collins before it crossed into American bars.
The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874 changed the name. The joke was to tell somebody that a man called Tom Collins was in a nearby bar saying unpleasant things about them, and then to watch them go looking. Newspapers in New York and Pennsylvania took it up, and the name entered the vocabulary so thoroughly that the existing John Collins acquired it.
Some accounts credit a shift from genever to Old Tom gin, with the Tom referring to the gin rather than the hoax. The record supports both without settling either.
The Collins Format
A collins is a sour extended with soda into a long drink: spirit, citrus and sugar, topped with soda. That single addition produces a different kind of drink.
A daiquiri and a Tom Collins share the same underlying logic of spirit, fresh citrus and sugar. The Collins adds soda, builds over ice rather than shaking, and comes out longer, lower in perceived strength and suited to being drunk over an hour rather than ten minutes. The bubbles also lift the gin’s botanicals out of the glass in a way a shaken and strained drink does not.
The format takes almost any base spirit, and the family differs mainly in the spirit and the length.
The collins family and its neighbours
Tom Collins
- Spirit
- 60ml London Dry gin
- Citrus
- 30ml lemon
- Sugar
- 15ml syrup
- Soda
- 90ml
- Build
- Built over ice, collins glass
John Collins (IBA)
- Spirit
- 45ml gin
- Citrus
- 30ml lemon
- Sugar
- 15ml syrup
- Soda
- 60ml
- Build
- Built over ice, highball
Vodka Collins
- Spirit
- 50ml vodka
- Citrus
- 25ml lemon
- Sugar
- 20ml syrup
- Soda
- 90ml
- Build
- Over ice, collins glass
Gin Sling
- Spirit
- 50ml gin
- Citrus
- 25ml lemon
- Sugar
- 15ml syrup
- Soda
- 60ml
- Build
- Built over ice, nutmeg on top
Gin Fizz
- Spirit
- 45ml gin
- Citrus
- 30ml lemon
- Sugar
- 10ml syrup
- Soda
- 60ml
- Build
- Shaken, served with no ice
| Drink | Spirit | Citrus | Sugar | Soda | Build |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Collins | 60ml London Dry gin | 30ml lemon | 15ml syrup | 90ml | Built over ice, collins glass |
| John Collins (IBA) | 45ml gin | 30ml lemon | 15ml syrup | 60ml | Built over ice, highball |
| Vodka Collins | 50ml vodka | 25ml lemon | 20ml syrup | 90ml | Over ice, collins glass |
| Gin Sling | 50ml gin | 25ml lemon | 15ml syrup | 60ml | Built over ice, nutmeg on top |
| Gin Fizz | 45ml gin | 30ml lemon | 10ml syrup | 60ml | Shaken, served with no ice |
Why the Lemon Measure Is Higher
Thirty millilitres against sixty of gin is a fuller citrus measure than many shaken sours use, and the reason is the soda.
The soda adds ninety millilitres to the finished drink, which is more than the gin and the lemon combined. A sour ratio that tastes balanced in a coupe is under-acidic once that much water and carbonation has gone in, and the result reads as fizzy and vaguely lemony rather than as a sour.
The higher measure keeps the acid holding from the first mouthful to the last, which is what a drink built to last an hour needs.
Old Tom and the Historical Version
Old Tom is the sweetened English style that came before London Dry took over, and it is the gin the IBA specifies for a Tom Collins.
Where London Dry’s juniper sits against the lemon in clean, direct contrast, Old Tom’s softer botanicals and residual sweetness give a rounder result in which the gin leads more gently and the syrup can come down. Make the two side by side once and the difference the style of gin makes is plain.
Hayman’s and Ransom both make reliable Old Toms. Cut the syrup by taste rather than by a fixed amount, because residual sweetness varies between producers.
How to Serve It
Built over ice in a collins glass, soda poured carefully, stirred once, garnished with a lemon slice and a Luxardo maraschino cherry, and served at once with a straw.
It suits people who do not usually drink gin, because the lemon and soda soften it, and it still shows a good gin clearly to those who do.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. GB law requires juniper to lead the taste and sets a 37.5% ABV floor; the usual bottle is 40%. The law grades it by how the flavour gets in, from plain gin through distilled gin to London gin, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Tom Collins?
Was Tom Collins a real person?
Who was John Collins?
What is the difference between a Tom Collins and a John Collins?
What is the difference between a Tom Collins and a Gin Fizz?
What is the difference between a Tom Collins and a Gin Sling?
Why is there so much lemon juice?
How strong is a Tom Collins?
What glass does a Tom Collins go in?
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Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026