The original Tom Collins was born out of the John Collins, which was named for John Collin, who was the headwaiter of Limmer’s Old House. The house punch was a gin punch topped with soda. This is my imagined take on what the fictitious Alistair Collin might have made as an improvement on his brother’s punch recipe.

The 1870s heralded the arrival of the Tom Collins in the world of American mixology, which itself had entered a new phase, one of codification through cocktail manuals. Though the Collins is commonly thought of as being served over generous amounts of ice, in this period (1875-1919), it’s often served like a Fizz (sans ice)–another drink that made a splash at this time. There’s also a fair amount of lime during this period, whether it’s split with lemon or on its own.

The Tom Collins had yet another life after World War II. That’s like four lives now! The postwar suburbanization of the United States, combined with the lasting effects of Prohibition, severely narrowed the once-massive canon of American drinks–but the Collins remained. In this period, it solidified into the classic form we know today; meanwhile, the John Collins ditched genever in favor of American whiskey. I added the Angostura bitters based on a 1949 recipe from the Esquire Handbook for Hosts.