Applejack Collins

At some point, most of the popular cocktails have been tried with Applejack as an experiment. This is one that goes over very well. Applejack is less like a brandy and more similar to whiskey, and it has a neat herbal scent not unlike gin.

More strange discrepancies with this recipe: no Collins should be a blender drink, so I'm amending the recipe to a shaken cocktail as it should be. You'll see the original directions below, however.

Do this if you have applejack and the mood arises for a Collins in the fall.

• 2 oz. applejack (Laird's used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 3-5 dashes orange bitters
• sparkling water
• lemon slice

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and lemon slice in a shaker (blender?) with ice. Shake (blend until smooth?) and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Top with sparkling water and stir. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

(Blended) Whiskey Collins

The John Collins is specifically a blended whiskey Collins, but usually implies an Irish whiskey. I wanted to showcase an American blend for this entry--a necessary entry if a little redundant in the New York Bartender's Guide.

• 3 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's 7 used)
• 2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• sparkling water
• orange slice
• maraschino cherry

Build drink in a Collins glass with whiskey, lemon juice and sugar syrup and ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Garnish with the orange slice and cherry. 

Mint Collins

I didn't realize that this cross between a Collins and a Mojito existed. My first inkling came when I made the Cool Collins, non alcoholic cocktail a week ago. The idea of muddling mint in lemon and sugar for a gin and soda drink was sound. Then I came across this recipe and had to do it. I also had to include the cherry--green--as a staple of most Collins everywhere.

• 3 oz. gin (Sunset Hills used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 7 mint leaves 
• lemon slice
• sparkling water
• mint sprig

Add mint leaves, sugar and lemon juice to a Collinst glass and muddle gently to release mint essence. Add gin and ice and top with soda. Stir gently and garnish with the lemon slice and mint sprig. 

Berta's Special

A dry and fizzy cocktail that might be a more appropriate Tequila Fizz than the recipe posted with this name. It is sour and sufficiently dry with a great egg white foam on top. So much about this drink is doing it right. It is dry and less sugary than a Margarita with orange bitters replacing the triple sec.
Then there's the addition of honey for sweetness that sets the drink apart from other fizzes. Maybe that's why this is Berta's Special.

• 2 oz. gold tequila (Sauza anejo used)
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 5-7 dashes of orange bitters
• sparkling water
• lime slice

Combine the first four ingredients in a shaker with no ice. Shake to produce foam. Add ice and shake to chill and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Top with sparkling water, garnish with the lime slice. 

Tequila Collins

Of course a white tequila is necessary to mimic the fizzy gin drink known as the Collins. This recipe is easier to make than the one for the gin Collins. That must be because, when it comes to tequila, no one wants to stress too much or work too hard. This cocktail is built in a glass with no shaking involved. It calls for simple syrup rather than having to dissolve sugar granules, which is easier. Furthermore, the portion of tequila is less than the gin in a Collins so it fits in my Collins glass and is not as strongly flavored.

The recipe calls for a maraschino cherry garnish. I had a lovely blood orange that needed to be part of this experience, though. Garnish however you like.

• 2 oz. white tequila
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. simple syrup
• sparkling water
• maraschino cherry

Build drink in a Collins glass with tequila, juice, and simple syrup. Add ice and top with sparkling water. Stir and garnish. 

Vodka Collins

There's so many Collins drinks out there, but this one seems as if it fits the the general rule. I'm increasingly finding that a Collins glass is not sufficient to hold a Collins drink. That's because a three ounce pour of vodka, plus sugar syrup and lemon, plus ice leaves little room for soda. I grabbed a beer pint instead, and that worked out pretty well.

• 3 oz. vodka (Smirnoff 57 used)
• 2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. sugar syrup
• sparkling water
• maraschino cherry
• orange slice

Combine vodka, sugar syrup and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass (pint pictured). Top with sparkling water and garnish with fruit. 

Gin Fizz & Gin Cooler

There are a lot of similar gin cocktails out there since the beginning of the Fizz, Collins, and Fix assimilation of the late 19th century. These are two that are nearly identical. A Fizz is exactly what it sound like: drink with gin, lemon and soda. It is less potent than the Tom Collins, which has three ounces of gin and is designed to get you drunk quickly.

The Gin Fizz (left) is a nice refresher on a hot day. Made almost like the Tom Collins according to the recipe below.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• sparkling water

Combine gin, lemon juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water.

The Gin Cooler (right) is part of a more nebulous group of drinks (some that use mint and some that use sparkling water or juices) designed to chill the blood on hot days. Make it like this, without a shaker.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• sparkling water
• lemon peel

Mix gin and sugar in the bottom of a Collins glass without ice until sugar dissolves. Add ice and top with sparkling water. Garnish with the lemon peel. 
 

Boston Cooler

It's a good time of year for a rum cooler. The Boston Cooler is really a fine and simple thing. My speculation is that the drink is considered a Boston cocktail because of the city's colonial rum drinking heritage. This is pretty much the same thing as a Rum Collins, but the specification of light rum makes all the difference, I guess.

• 2 oz. white rum
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• sparkling water
• lemon twist

Combine rum, juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. top with sparkling water and garnish with the twist.