Five great cocktails
Gin classics
Alongside the Martini and Negroni, gin has produced a whole range of standalone classics over the decades. The Tom Collins, Gimlet, Aviation, Bramble, and French 75 show just how differently gin can behave when paired with citrus, liqueurs, or Champagne.
Tom Collins and Gimlet: the simple classics
The Tom Collins combines gin with lemon juice, a touch of sweetness, and soda water, and is served tall in a highball glass. Its name traces back to older recipes called Collins and is closely tied to Old Tom Gin, popular in England, a slightly sweeter style of gin from the 19th century.
The Gimlet, by contrast, pairs gin only with lime juice or lime cordial, with no soda water at all. Its history is often linked to the Royal Navy, which from the mid-19th century onward was required to carry lime juice on board to prevent scurvy. A sweetened lime cordial, patented in 1867 by a Scottish merchant, made this juice more stable and likely gave the drink the distinctive taste it's known for today.
Aviation and Bramble: color and fruit
The Aviation combines gin with maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, and a small amount of crème de violette, which gives the cocktail its characteristic pale blue tint. It emerged in the early 20th century in the US and is regarded as one of the most aromatically complex examples of classic gin cocktails from that era.
The Bramble came along much later, invented in the 1980s by a London bartender who combined gin with lemon juice, a bit of sugar, and blackberry liqueur, serving the result over crushed ice. With its fruity, slightly sweet-and-sour character, the Bramble shows that modern creations can become true classics too.
French 75: gin meets Champagne
The French 75 combines gin, lemon juice, and a bit of sugar with Champagne or dry sparkling wine, and is usually served in a Champagne flute. Its name references a French field gun from World War I, known for its powerful punch, and the cocktail already appeared under a similar name in printed recipe collections during the war itself.
The combination of zesty citrus, dry gin, and the fine effervescence of sparkling wine makes the French 75 a festive, elegant cocktail. It stands in clear contrast to earthier, more bitter classics like the Negroni or Martini, and is often served on special occasions.
What do these five classics have in common?
As different as the Tom Collins, Gimlet, Aviation, Bramble, and French 75 may sound, all five share the same basic idea: gin as the base, rounded out with citrus acidity, a touch of sweetness, and depending on the recipe, an additional liqueur or some fizz. These few building blocks are enough to create very different characters, ranging from zesty to fruity to festive.
Anyone who tries these five classics one after another gets a good sense of the range that's possible with gin alone, without a single recipe being complicated. It's exactly this accessibility that has kept many of these drinks on bar menus for over a century. Many bars keep at least one of these five classics as a permanent fixture on their menu, since guests often already know them and ask for them specifically. For anyone who wants to mix drinks themselves, these recipes also make a great starting point, since they rely on just a few easily available ingredients while still delivering a clear, distinctive character. Trying your hand at one of these classics also teaches basic techniques along the way, like shaking with citrus juice or carefully topping up with Champagne, skills that can later be applied to other cocktails too. These techniques form a solid foundation on which more elaborate creations of your own can be built over time.