The original highball.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Tom Collins is the original highball and the cocktail every other tall drink owes a royalty to. Limmer’s Hotel, London, 1860s. Gin, lemon, sugar, soda, tall glass, lemon wheel, maraschino cherry. The drink invented to be sold to people walking into bars asking “is Tom Collins here?”, because there had been a hoax newspaper story about a man called Tom Collins insulting people around town and bartenders started serving the drink instead of an answer.
The drink is more lemon-forward than people expect. Don’t cut the lemon back; the soda will dilute it. Use a London Dry gin (Beefeater, Tanqueray, or Four Pillars Rare Dry if you want to fly the flag). The cherry has to be a real maraschino (Luxardo) not the radioactive supermarket version that tastes of formaldehyde. Tall Collins glass full of ice. Soda must be ice-cold from the fridge or you have made a flat lemonade. Pair with oysters, smoked trout, salt-and-pepper squid, anything you would squeeze a wedge of lemon over.
What to pour it alongside
Oysters, smoked trout, salt-and-pepper squid. Anything where you’d squeeze a wedge of lemon, you’d happily drink a Tom Collins.
Notes
The drink is more lemon-forward than people expect. Don’t cut the lemon back, the soda will dilute it. If your soda water is room temperature, you have made a flat lemonade. Soda must be ice-cold from the fridge.
The recipe
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