How To Make A Seriously Good Tom Collins

Yes Pimms might be the go-to summer drink, but if we're all honest with ourselves, gin is the only spirit that truly matters. So instead of wasting your time with anything else, it's worth getting to know how to drink it in its many forms. This Friday, it's as a classicly refreshing Tom Collins cocktail...

Essentially a Tom Collins is just gin, soda water, lemon and sugar, which listed out like that doesn't sound all too appealing. But trust us, it hits the spot.

So to get you better acquainted with this cocktail, we spoke to Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge, International Brand Ambassador for Beefeater Gin to get his tips to perfect this summertime fave.

Sebastian says as with any cocktail, the trick is to get the balance of flavours absolutely spot on. With a Tom Collins, it's "one part sour, half part sugar and two parts gin. So the classic 2:1:1/2 ratio."

In most cases, bars and restaurants will use sugar syrup to make their TCs, but if you can't be bothered to make your own Sebastian says that you can simply use caster sugar and dissolve it within the cocktail.

"If you're not using sugar syrup make sure the sugar get dissolved and always use caster sugar, NOT granulated, because caster sugar will dissolve in cold water", he explains.

Lastly but by no means least, Sebastian stresses that the "importance of ice is vital, it's basic Newton's Third Law of Physics, so put in a lot of ice in it so it won't melt so quickly."

Basically - the more ice the better!