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Gin Fizz, Tom Collins or John Collins, here are 3 cocktails with different but very similar names, Cocktail Mag takes a look at the real difference between them.
Gin Fizz, Tom Collins and John Collins are 3 particularly similar cocktails, they are all 3 made with gin, lemon juice, sugar and sparkling water, poured into a glass without ice cubes. So what differentiates the 3, you will see it is only a question of detail...
Gin Fizz vs Tom Collins
To first understand the difference between a Gin Fizz and a Tom Collins, we must go back to the source. These 2 cocktails were first published in a cocktail book in 1876, it was in the 2nd edition of the book Bartenders Guide: How to mix drinks written by Jerry Thomas, the father of mixology himself.
I got my hands on this book again in order to finally make you understand the real difference between a Gin Fizz and a Tom Collins, because on this subject we really hear everything and its opposite. Here are the recipes:
By carefully deciphering these 2 recipes, we discover that the Gin Fizz and the Tom Collins are identical except for 2 details:
- the capacity: the Tom Collins has a larger capacity than the fizz.
- the sparkling water used: the Gin Fizz is topped up with sparkling water in a siphon while the Tom Collins is topped up with natural sparkling water.
So it is not a question of ice cubes, egg whites or technique as we sometimes hear that makes the difference between these two cocktails, but rather the capacity and type of sparkling water. By the way, a Gin Fizz with an egg white is called a Silver Gin Fizz, you will find some other variations on the Gin Fizz page.
It is also worth noting that the cocktail that is now called the Tom Collins was actually more accurately called the "Tom Collins Gin" originally. The term "Tom Collins" was actually more of a family of cocktails that included the "Tom Collins Gin", the "Tom Collins Brandy" and the "Tom Collins Whiskey", as you can see above.
By the way, you probably now understand why there are glasses called "Collins" that have a larger capacity than classic tumblers... By the way, if the different capacity of these 2 cocktails is still relevant today, the type of sparkling water used is absolutely no longer a difference these days.
Tom Collins vs John Collins
A little more history to understand the difference between Tom Collins and John Collins. It was in 1882 in the book Harry Johnson's new and improved bartender's manual written by the American bartender Harry Johnson that the recipe for the John Collins was found for the first time in a cocktail book.
Harry Johnson had published the recipes for the Tom Collins and the John Collins in this book, and by comparing these two recipes we discover that the only difference between these two cocktails lies in the gin used: Old Tom Gin for the Tom Collins, and Holland Gin for the John Collins. The Tom Collins recipe is on 2 pages in this book, but here is at least the John Collins recipe:
And there you have it, the Gin Fizz, Tom Collins and John Collins now hold no more secrets for you 🙂
The different cases of Lime Gin Fizz and Gin Rickey
A quick aside to finish with two slightly different cocktails that should not be confused, the Lime Gin Fizz which is a Gin Fizz with lime instead of lemon, and the Gin Rickey which is a Lime Gin Fizz without sugar.
