How to make the Tom Collins Cocktail

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We have been conditioned to think that a cocktail must have a colour of sorts, be it pink, green, blue or layered. Here a few facts and an ‘uncoloured’ cocktail that will never go out of fashion – the Tom Collins.

A while back we wrote about the bare minimum in bar ingredients and we didn’t include grenadine syrup or blue curacao which are used to provide ‘colour to drinks’ If you use a strawberry, then by default you will get a pinkish/reddish hue in your cocktail. If you use rosemary, you will not get any colour but if you nail it as far as flavour achievement you will have a great rosemary cocktail. You in effect have two great tasting cocktails. One with ‘colours’ and the other ‘colourless’.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if you use cinnamon and you get a dull brown colour that it’s okay! All drinks have to be refined to feed optics. Some can be clear, others can be white, or even orange. Just make sure it is appealing to the eye and not murky but most of all that it tastes right. Walk around the grocery and ask yourself where all the beautiful ingredients that aren’t red, green or blue go to – they are depleted and restocked. Are there even blue ingredients at the grocery?

The Tom Collins recipe

Tanqueray no.10 – 50ml

Sugar syrup – 25ml

Lemon juice – 25ml

Soda water – top-up

Glass – Collins/highball

Garnish – lemon wedge

Cherry (Classical garnish that the home cocktail enthusiast can omit)

Procedure

Fill glass with ice.

Measure in all ingredients and stir well. 

Garnish by placing lemon wedge in the glass.

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Fact

The Tom Collins is a brilliant white if well-made, with an amazing taste. The green/blue drinks were conjured up by ‘mixologists’ who couldn’t stock fresh juices and needed a shortcut to make ‘pleasant drinks’. 

The Tom Collins is a bartender creation has been around since before 1880 and is going nowhere. Ask yourself – does it have to be blue or does it have to look refined based on its ingredients and most of all, how does it taste?