Trust The Devil You Know

You really can’t go wrong mixing Gin with most any type of citrus. Although the traditional Tom Collins is not a sweet drink (being only Gin, lemon juice, and club soda), thus far my drinks have all been pretty sweet. My series of Collins-ish cocktails was born out of an effort to make Xavier happy. He’s a fan of sweet and he told me he was on a mission for the “Perfect Tom Collins”.

I may not have mentioned it previously but in my younger days, I spent three years working as a bartender in Las Vegas, Nevada. I even attended a private bartending academy so I could be grossly overqualified for deflecting pervy old men, opening beers and pouring shots in my local neighborhood bar.

All that wasted mixology knowledge, sitting around collecting dust for the last twenty years, has finally found something to do.

I couldn’t say if I prefer the Cherry Limeade Collins to this Orange Cream Collins, as they’re both terrific, but here’s the recipe for the Orange Cream Collins.

In a glass of ice, mix the following in this order:

1.5 oz shot of Gin.

2 splashes of lime juice.

Top off with Orange Cream flavored seltzer water.

Stir. Don’t do anything else until you stir.

Garnish with a slice of orange and two maraschino cherries.

Pour in about a teaspoon of cherry juice from the jar (or Grenadine). The cherry juice will sink to the bottom creating a pretty layered effect.

P.S. It is not necessary to break the bank on these drinks. As you can see in the pictures, the cherries, lime juice, and seltzer water are all Wal-Mart house brand and are pretty inexpensive. The Gin came from Wal-Mart too and cost about $5.75 for a 750ml bottle. Obviously, there are higher quality Gins on the market but Caliber London Dry Gin is not bad for making mixed drinks where there are many other flavors at play.