Ian Fleming was as much a connoisseur of classic cocktails as his hero, and they do not come more classic than the Tom Collins. The drink is named after an infamous hoax that did the rounds of New York in 1874. The victim of the prank was informed that a loud-mouthed gentleman named Tom Collins was besmirching his or her honour to anyone who would listen, and would therefore tear around the neighbourhood seeking to settle the score with this imaginary adversary. The cocktail subsequently appeared in Jerry Thomas’ 1876 Bar-Tender’s Guide, and has remained a stalwart ever since. Refreshing, bright, but carrying a hint of bitterness from the lemon and gin, this alcoholic lemonade was the gin and tonic of its day. There are as many variations on the Tom Collins as there are spirits. Try, for example, the John Collins, where bourbon is substituted for the gin.
50ml (2fl oz) London Dry (or Old Tom) gin
20ml (¾fl oz) lemon juice
20ml (¾fl oz) simple syrup (see here)
soda water, to top up
TO GARNISH
lemon wedge
Amarena cherry
Measure the gin, lemon juice and syrup into a cocktail shaker and top up with ice to the brim. Shake vigorously, then strain into a frosted Highball glass over large ice cubes. Top up with soda water and garnish with a thin lemon wedge and an Amarena cherry.
NOTE: for the sake of speed and efficiency, this cocktail can also be built in the glass without recourse to a cocktail shaker. If you can’t find an Amarena cherry, use a maraschino cherry instead.
FLEMING ON . . . GIN
How different my writing looks from the others you get – from Peter [Quennell] and Evelyn [Waugh] and Hugo [Charteris]. That is the sort of thing one thinks about after 3 gins and tonics and 3 thousand miles of thinking about you. It was horrible leaving the square. I said goodbye 3 times to your room and stole the photograph of you and Caspar. It’s now behind a bottle of Aqua Velva in our bedroom so as not to be blown down by the wind. Things blown down by the wind worry me. For what it’s worth, which, at this writing – as they say in America – is not very much to me, Jakie Astor flew with me to America. Vacuum in New York. It’s a dead, dreadful place and I loathe it more and more. The Bryces were very suspicious about your absence. What had happened? Jo [Bryce] said you were the only woman I had ever loved and ever would. Good? Bad? I said, as I say to everyone, that you are coming later. NANA has changed. It doesn’t belong to them anymore. I took some money out. Do you want a fur coat? What shape? What fur? I might get thin to smuggle it. Draw a picture. Give your measurements. Spent the night with the Bs. I love Ivar. I can’t help it. He needs me (4 gins and tonics!) Second night alone in Grand Central Station Oyster Bar. What do you think I do when I’m abroad? Well I don’t. I sit alone. In fact, I believe you’d rather I didn’t. Any person rather than no person. (I’m beginning to write like Hugo. It’s an obsession.) T. Capote was on the Avianca. Just arrived from Moscow. Suitcase full of caviar for the Paleys who have built a house beyond Round Hill. V. sweet and nice, loves you. Fascinating about Russia. Met the real jet set there who loved him. Found beautiful powder blue Austin on arrival. Drove through dark. Beach miraculous after 4 weeks. Northern ½ moon. Very sad without you. Today started book. Got two conches but no fun as you weren’t there and sea crawling with lobsters. Also no fun. V. nice new gardener called Felix. It’s a wonderful place and I can’t sell it but you must be here. It belongs to you and you’re stupid not to come here. You must get rid of your fears of things. Your fears of things are as bad as my fears of people.
(5th gin and tonic and goodnight my darling love and come if you possibly can) I love you only in the world.
IN A LETTER TO HIS WIFE, ANN, GOLDENEYE, JAMAICA, JANUARY 1956
And there would be drink! Champagne in frosted silver coolers, rum punches, Tom Collinses, whisky sours, and, of course, great beakers of iced water that would only have been poured when the train whistled its approach to the gay little station. Bond could see it all.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
CHAPTER 14. THE GREAT MORASS
The herdsman now handed Bond a bottle of what appeared to be water. Tiger said, “This is shochu. It is a very raw gin. Fill your mouth with it and spray it over the back of the cow and then massage it into the cow’s flesh.”
Bond guessed that Tiger hoped he would swallow some of the gin and choke. He closed his throat but lustily filled his mouth with the stuff, compressed his lips and blew hard so that the vapour from the stuff would not go up his nostrils. He wiped his hands across his lips that were already stinging with the harsh spirit and scrubbed energetically at the rough pelt.
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
CHAPTER 10. ADVANCED STUDIES
Bond ordered a double gin and tonic and one whole green lime. When the drink came he cut the lime in half, dropped the two squeezed halves into the long glass, almost filled the glass with ice cubes and then poured in the tonic. He took the drink out on to the balcony, and sat and looked out across the spectacular view. He thought how wonderful it was to be away from headquarters, and from London, and from hospitals, and to be here, at this moment, doing what he was doing and knowing, as all his senses told him, that he was on a good tough case again.
DR NO
CHAPTER 4. RECEPTION COMMITTEE
Gin is mentioned 33 times in the Bond novels.