[Lee Stewart]

Before the Tom Collins, there was the John Collins, which was created by a man of the same name. He worked as a head waiter at Limmer’s Old House in London during the 1860s. The original recipe called for powdered sugar, lemon juice, Old Tom gin and soda water. It’s speculated that because the drink called for Old Tom gin specifically, the name was eventually altered. It could have also been inspired by the very strange Tom Collins Hoax in 1874, when people went around asking others if they’d heard of Tom Collins and, upon their reply, telling them that this nonexistent character was roaming from bar to bar talking smack about them. Believe it or not, it caused quite an uproar.