Old Tom Gin Is an Embracing Days Gone By. This gin of old is making a comeback.
On my travels to visit my family and friends in Colorado I went to one of my favorite distilleries; Spring44. They were so awesome to meet me and give me a tour. I got to see the vats of botanicals, racks of aging barrels, how their bottling line works and to see their stills. I also got to taste all of what they make. Tasting the differences between their 3 gins, in particular was very enlightening. Everything I sampled was so tasty, and my mind was whirling as I drove back to my friends on what I might use in a cocktail.
Located in Loveland Colorado, Spring44 is a modern distillery that makes several great products. Each night after the production ends for the day, someone from the distillery goes up into the mountains and stays in an off the grid cabin. The next morning, they truck their water from an actual spring high in the Rockies to their facility in Loveland. As tradition calls, Spring44 has names for their stills, there is Ruby, The copper Vendome hybrid pot-column still (that’s a mouth full!) And then there is Flo, originally a butter churner, that they purchased on Craig’s List from a dairy farm in Quebec and retrofitted.
One of the Gins I liked very much was their Old Tom Gin. Old Tom Gin is the darker, older cousin of what we know as the dry, light gin of today. In the 1700s and 1800s, gin was not as refined as today, more sweeteners or sometimes licorice was added to gin to make it more drinkable. The Old Tom Gin became the standard of gin until modern methods of distilling made the dry gin we know and love today more popular. The origin of the name Old Tom Gin has many different theories. Most of them involve an old stray cat or tomcat. One says that an old black cat fell into a vat of gin and yet a different story says there was a sign with a black cat above a small slot and a lead pipe coming from the side of a building. Someone could place a coin in the slot, and a bartender would pour a shot of gin down the pipe into the payee’s mouth. Yet another theory is that several brands featured a cat on the label, there is a court battle between two rival gin makers for the rights to use the cat. Or another that a distiller in England was named Tom as was his assistant, it was named after the senior distiller.
Today Old Tom Gin is making a comeback. Several craft distilleries are making modern versions of Old Tom Gin. Spring44 makes an excellent one. The distillery ages their old tom gin in toasted oak barrels giving it a lovely golden color and flavor. It has notes of citrus and spice finishing with butterscotch at the end. It is incredible just poured over ice. And it makes excellent cocktails.
The Tom Collins was actually named after Old Tom Gin. There are recipes going back to the mid-1800s. The original Tom Collins had Old Tom Gin, lemon, sugar, half a lemon and soda water. The deeper and slightly sweeter flavor of Old Tom Gin is the perfect gin to mix for a Tom Collins as it blends well with the soda and citrus. Tom Collins a refreshing and yet very tasty cocktail perfect for any occasion.
I decided to mix it up and add my favorite citrus, grapefruit to bring out the citrus notes in Old Tom Gin. It makes a bit less sweet which is where I like my cocktails.
- 3 oz old tom gin
- 2 oz ruby red grapefruit juice
- 1/2 oz lemon juice
- ½ oz agave syrup
- 3 oz soda
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To a cocktail shaker or pitcher add the gin, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, and agave syrup.
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Stir to dissolve the syrup and blend.
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Pour into a tall glass filled with ice.
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Top with soda
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Garnish with grapefruit slice or peel
