Way back in 1874, people throughout the U.S. would start a conversation with "Have you seen Tom Collins?"
The listener who was asked that question would predictably say that he or she didn't know such person, and the person who asked the question would try to convince them that Tom Collins was just talking at length about the listener and that they were surely acquainted.
This ongoing, practical joke was so widespread that it became known as The Great Tom Collins hoax of 1874.
Two years later, Jerry Thomas, the father of American mixology, first wrote about the Tom Collins cocktail, a mixture of gin, lemon juice, sugar and soda, named after the hoax.
Since then, several drink variations using the same preparation fashion and some of the same ingredients became known as Collins cocktails.
We recently stopped by one of the top cocktail bars in New York, ZZ's Clam Bar in Manhattan, where head bartender Thomas Waugh showed us his dynamic twist on the Collins. Watch below.
Produced by Robert Libetti
SEE ALSO: Top New York Bartender Shows Us Why This Strawberry-Gin Cocktail Costs $20
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