The Tom Collins is definitely one of my favorite summer cocktails. It’s dry, citrusy, bright, fizzy and refreshing. It was a very popular drink in the late 19th century and first appeared in print in Jerry Thomas’ Bartenders guide in 1876. It’s a very simple classic cocktail consisting of gin, lemon, sugar, and club soda—almost like a fizzy gin lemonade. Who doesn’t need some booze in their lemonade on a hot summer day? I’ve made a slight adjustment to this classic and replaced the sugar with a chamomile flower-infused honey syrup and added elderflower liqueur for a thirst quenchingly good summer cocktail.
Chamomile Elderflower Tom Collins, serves one
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. elderflower liqueur
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. chamomile honey syrup
club soda
honey
chamomile flowers
When I make honey syrup, I do a 3:1 ratio of honey to water. You’re just diluting the honey so that it’s easier to work with, and you don’t want it to lose flavor by adding too much water. I combined 12 oz. of honey and 4 oz. of water in a pot and added 2 tablespoons of dried chamomile flowers. You can also use chamomile tea bags if that’s easier, but I feel that using the dried flowers yields the best flavor. Let it simmer on the stove for 10 minutes and then remove from heat and let completely cool. Strain the syrup over a bowl with a fine strainer to remove the flowers.
To make the cocktail, add gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon, and chamomile honey syrup to your shaker, add ice and shake. Strain into your desired serving vessel. A Collins is usually served in a Collins/highball glass, but I couldn’t resist putting them in this glass (similar ones here!) because of the flowers on it. It was big enough so I still had room to top with soda. I thought I’d link to them since everyone always loves my glassware. 😉
I’m completely in love with how simple and delicious this drink was. It was slightly sweeter than your traditional Tom Collins because of the honey but wasn’t overpowering. The chamomile brought a floral and herbal element to this drink that was so refreshing and complemented the other ingredients perfectly. I also like how it’s a combination of lemonade and sweet tea. I will definitely be making a few more of these before summer is over. I hope you will too! Cheers everyone. xo Natalie
19 Comments
Thanks for sharing.
I like how you replaced the sugar – the chamomile gives off such a lovely smell too.
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Thanks so much Charmaine! It seemed like such a natural pairing together.
Where are those glasses from? I’m swooning!
UO but they have sold out! Here’s some similar ones from Etsy- http://rstyle.me/n/crqsj7nr5e 🙂
Such a bummer that they sold out! They were still available when I drafted the post.
This combination of flavors sounds amazing! Perfect amount of fun and sophisticated. Yum!
Thank you, Juliette! I hope you enjoy one.
beautiful blog! kisses from italy!
That does sound like a delicious and refreshing cocktail, I have to try it!
https://www.makeandmess.com/
can’t wait to try!! Y’all come up with the best recipes.
Great post i love this blog
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so simple and thanks for sharing
When I was Europa, I drank Tom Collins coctails. I liked it. Moreover, you wrote very nice here. Thank you
These look great. I love the glasses – they’re stunning
Abi | abistreetx
This looks yummy. I love adding Elderflower to my Champagne. It gives it a bit of sweetness.
I’ve noticed that ABM regularly fails to use the correct spelling of “complement” vs. “compliment.” Just a friendly note to the copy editor!
Thank you!
Thats really great