Try a Tom Collins with Spring44 Old Tom Gin

Spring44 Old Tom Gin - Find. Eat. Drink.

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On a recent road trip to Denver, I checked out The Source, an artisan food market that occupies a former 1880's brick foundry building in Denver's River North District. At the bar in the middle was a line of Spring 44 bottles and founder Jeff Lindauer holding court. We tasted the Rob’s Mtn Gin, the Spring 44 gin, and the Spring 44 Old Tom gin. While all three were great examples of gin, it was the slight back-end sweetness of the barrel-aged Old Tom gin that jumped out at us.

Try Spring44’s Old Tom gin in a Tom Collins cocktail.

The story goes that Old Tom gin came about when gin was outlawed in London. Gin did not disappear, but went underground. Pubs put up wooden signs shaped like a black cat (an “Old Tom”) and after a customer put a penny in the cat’s mouth they could drink a shot of gin from a tube poured by the bartender inside.

Spring44 at The Source in Denver

Photo Credit: Find. Eat. Drink.

On a recent road trip to Denver, I came across a new version of the old spirit. In the center of an artisan marketplace called The Source, which is an 1880s brick foundry building in Denver’s River North District, a man named Jeff Lindauer was holding court. Lindauer is the founder of a line of spirits called Spring44. The name comes from the water source where the spring is located at 9044 feet in Buckhorn Canyon, CO. Lindauer’s father bought the land and instead of building on it, Jeff is using the spring as the base to produce vodka, gin, and whiskey.

At The Source, I tasted the Rob’s Mtn Gin, the Spring 44 gin, and the Spring 44 Old Tom gin. While all three were great examples of gin, it was the slight back-end sweetness of the barrel-aged Old Tom gin that jumped out at me.

Since it’s sold in New York, I realized I didn’t need to “hand import” a bottle in my suitcase. One of the first liquor errands I ran upon returning home was to pick up a bottle [buy some here].

Old Tom gin is also called gin’s missing link and its flavor is somewhere in-between the lighter, less intense London Dry style and the heavier, fuller bodied Dutch genever. After losing favor in the 1900s, it has made a return with cocktail bartenders and enthusiasts alike and producers like Hayman’s and Jensen in England and Ransom and Spring 44 in the US are fulfilling that need.

Spring 44‘s Lindauer recommends trying his Old Tom gin in a Tom Collins cocktail, where the robustness of the gin stands out against the sharpness of the lemon. Another way to go is a Martinez, which balances the gin with sweet red vermouth, Maraschino cherry liqueur and Angostura bitters.

If you are looking for a new “old” summer drink, give the Tom Collins a whirl with this recipe.