What's in a name?
The first legend about the naming of the drink maintains that the drink was created by a London bartender named John Collins with a brand of pre-sweetened gin called Old Tom. The combination of the two names was used to baptize the cocktail as a Tom Collins.
Another story has the original drink being called a John Collins after the Dutch word for gin, jenever. When the John Collins was made with Old Tom gin, it was then referred to as a Tom Collins.CHOW: Tom Collins
Others maintain that the drink originated in America as a prank that sprung up in 1874. Supposedly, one friend would tell another that they had heard a man named Tom Collins saying libelous things about him in a bar down the street. The victim would then race into the bar demanding to see "Tom Collins." As this spread across the country, bartenders took advantage of the demand for "Tom Collins" by creating a drink named after the fictional scoundrel.Wall Street Journal: In Search of the Real Tom Collins
