Tom Collins and John Collins: A Discussion

culled from the bartender's GIN compendium

Much has been written about the origins of the Tom Collins, and it was George Sinclair, bartender,
drink historian, blogger, and all-around mischief-maker, who uncovered some previously unknown the
facts about it in a 2006 article that he penned for Class magazine in the UK. The drink, according to
George, was seemingly named after a practical joke, and the joke, which was the talk of the town in
New York and other cities in 1874, had grown men roaming the streets looking for Tom Collins, a
fictitious character who, they were told by pranksters of the nineteenth century, had been saying nasty
things about them. Strange how things such as a sense of humor, things that we think of as being basic
and ingrained, change over the years, right? This, though, was the great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874, and
the drink known as the Tom Collins began to appear in cocktail books shortly after this.

Prior to the Sinclair article, everyone thought that the Tom Collins was a drink that was born of John
Collins, a drink seemingly named for the head waiter at Limmer's, a joint in London. John Collins was,
in fact, the narrator of the following verse from a poem by Frank and Charles Sheridan:

"My name is John Collins, head waiter at Limmer's,

Corner of Conduit Street, Hanover Square,
My chief occupation is filling brimmers
For all the young gentlemen frequenters there."

Later in the poem gin punch is mentioned: "Mr. Frank always drinks my gin punch when he smokes."
So it's long been presumed that the John Collins gin punch originated at Limmer's in London, but
Sinclair's findings seemed to put paid to this theory. Indeed, Sinclair as much as dismissed the theory,
and more than a few people were inclined to agree with him at the time. But it seems that he was
wrong, after all. When Imbibe, David Wondrich's book, was released in 2007, things got a little clearer.

While the Tom Collins Hoax of 1874 seemed feasible to some folk as being responsible for the name
change, it just ain't so. The Tom Collins seems most definitely to have gotten its name when Old Tom
gin replaced the genever in the John Collins. Wondrich cites a gin punch known as John Collins as
being introduced to bartenders in New York in the 1850s, and although the recipe is lost to history, if it
was anything like the gin punches served at other London clubs-specifically The Garrick Club-during
the first half of the nineteenth century, Wondrich says that it would have called for gin, lemon juice,
chilled soda water, and maraschino liqueur.

Wondrich is a little evasive in his book, but when asked flat out, "Do you know for sure that a gin
punch known as John Collins was around prior to the 1870s?," his reply was, "Yeah, it's in the 1869
Steward & Barkeeper's Manual, and George Augustus Sala [a well respected British
writer/reporter/editor] found people drinking it here during the Civil War," he told us. A few weeks
later, dear David came up with a quote from a Canadian publication, dated 1865, that goes like this:
"The last time I saw [John Wilkes Booth] was at Montreal, in October, 1864, at a place called 'Dolly's,'
next door to the St. Lawrence Hall, and much frequented by the amateurs of 'Mint Juleps' and 'John
Collinses.'"

In 1904, an article entitled "The Last of Limmer's," written by John Morley, a British journalist and
politician, appeared in Macmillan's Magazine, and here we find a little more information about the
drink: "Through the bustle and confusion of Limmer's John Collins trotted serenely in his noiseless
pumps . . . mixing pick-me-ups of the kind named after him for the dejected revelers . . . This world-
renowned beverage, still popular in America, and not forgotten on this side of the Atlantic, was
compounded of gin, soda-water, ice, lemon and sugar," he wrote. Later in this piece Morley mentions
that after Collins retired from Limmer's, Dickens visited him in Hempstead. Collins was quite an
important man, it seems.

So where does all that leave us? Well, since the first printed recipe found at the time of writing for the
Tom Collins turned up in Jerry Thomas' 1876 book, The Bar-Tender's Guide or How to Mix all Kinds
of Plain and Fancy Drinks, and Thomas called specifically for Old Tom gin, the name change-from
John to Tom-seems appropriate. This theory also makes sense when you see that Louis Muckensturm
gave recipes for both drinks, calling for Hollands-genever-in the John Collins, and Old Tom in the Tom
Collins, in his 1906 book, Louis' Mixed Drinks.

In conclusion, then, it seems incontrovertible that the John Collins was named for the head waiter at
Limmer's in London, and that the Tom Collins is the same drink but made with Old Tom gin rather
than genever. Q.E.D. Now let the matter rest, please.