Limmer's Old House, London, ~1830s.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | BOURBON | 40 % |
| ¾ oz · 22 ml | LEMON JUICE | |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | SIMPLE SYRUP | |
| 3 oz · 90 ml | SODA WATER |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.25 oz mixed with ice, 0.8 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Shaken: +20 % of the pre-batch, +0.65 oz of water |
| Topped | Poured after the melt, kept whole: soda water 3 oz, no alcohol |
| Served | 3.25 + 0.65 + 3 = 6.9 oz in the glass, 0.8 oz of it alcohol |
| Strength | 0.8 ÷ 6.9 = 11.6 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.8 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 19 g · about 131 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM BOURBON · from oak barrel aging
Bourbon's fingerprint, extracted from the charred American oak the law requires for aging. Same molecule as the vanilla bean's signature, so a well-aged bourbon legitimately tastes like vanilla. Chemistry, not metaphor. Cognac, aged rum, tequila reposado all extract vanillin from oak too. Different barrels, same molecule.
ALSO IN Old Fashioned · Manhattan · Whiskey Sour · Paper Plane · Boulevardier · Sazerac · Espresso Martini · Mai Tai
FROM LEMON · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
ALSO IN Margarita · Mojito · Daiquiri · Whiskey Sour · Gimlet · Moscow Mule · Paper Plane · Aviation
Bourbon, lemon, sugar and soda. It is the Tom Collins's bourbon sibling: identical structure, different spirit. Vanillin from oaked bourbon replaces the Tom Collins's alpha-pinene from gin, and the lemon-and-soda structure is unchanged.
Originally named for John Collins, the head waiter at Limmer's Old House in Conduit Street, London, whose gin punch was famous by the 1830s. The Tom Collins came later as the 'Old Tom gin' variant; the John Collins drifted to refer to the whiskey version. The naming history is genuinely confusing (period sources sometimes have the two reversed) but the modern usage assigns Tom to gin and John to whiskey.
