John Collins
ClassicBourbon, lemon, and soda, built long over ice. The Tom Collins' whiskey-drinking cousin.
Bright and effervescent, bourbon's caramel warmth cut clean by lemon's acidity and lengthened by soda into something built for a long afternoon, not a quick sip.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
- 0.5 oz Simple Syrup
- 3 oz Soda Water, to top
- Lemon wheel · optional garnish
- maraschino cherry · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice.
- 2
Add the bourbon, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
- 3
Top with soda water and stir gently.
- 4
Garnish with a lemon wheel and a maraschino cherry.
The Story
The Collins family of drinks takes its name from John Collins, a headwaiter at Limmer's Old House in early-1800s London, credited with the original spec: genever, lemon, sugar, and soda. When the recipe crossed to America and Old Tom gin replaced the genever, the drink became the Tom Collins; bartenders who kept a dark spirit in the glass instead — bourbon or rye — kept calling it a John Collins, and both names have coexisted in bar language ever since as the "other" Collins.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
