April Fools Drinks – Tom Collins And A Special Ingredient For Cosmos

Monday is April Fool’s Day, so for today’s cocktail, we chose one that a joke is its origin story.
Known as "The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874,” this drink started as a result of a kind of lame joke.

Here’s how it came about:

“In the late 19th century, it became common to tell your friend who had just arrived at the bar that a man named “Tom Collins” had just been talking badly about them. The goal was to get your friend so upset over this “Tom Collins” that when you told them he just left to go to the bar next door, your friend would quickly rush over only to be greeted by a bartender with a Tom Collins cocktail in hand and a good laugh.
The joke became even more popular in 1874 when a few New York newspapers started reporting sightings of the fictitious man." -Specsonline

Ingredients:
2 oz gin
2 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
Dash of bitters
2 oz club soda
Lemon wedge for garnish

Add gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a glass with new ice. Top off with club soda, garnish with a lemon wedge.

I didn’t want to stop at just one April Fool’s drink though, and this snappy cosmopolitan with a special secret ingredient is a total crowd pleaser. Instead of rimming the glass with sugar, you’ll use Pop Rocks instead.

Ingredients:
2 packets watermelon or strawberry Pop Rocks
3 oz cold vodka
1 oz Cointreau
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus lime wedge for rim
1/4 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice

Crush the Pop Rocks between sheets of parchment paper, or while still in their packets. Moisten the glass rim with a lime wedge and dip into the Pop Rocks. Fill a shaker with ice, add in vodka, lime juice, pomegranate juice, and Cointreau, and shake.

No fooling, these are delicious.