A traditional Tom Collins was made with Gin, club soda, simple syrup and lemon juice. We wanted to give a nod to the original while still creating something of our own. We used a little molecular gastronomy in this one and I will give you the step by step on how to make the mint and cucumber syrup and how to turn that into spheres. I will also give my recipe for gomme syrup. But for now let's get that Collins recipe going.
Blind Bison Tom Collins
What You Will Need:
2 oz. Aviation Gin
1/2 oz. Gomme Syrup
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3 mint spheres
3 cucumber spheres
Soda to fill
Preparation:
Fill a tall glass (also called a collins glass) with ice and add the gin, gomme syrup and lemon juice. Toss in the mint and cucumber spheres and top with soda to fill. If you follow our recipe you will need boba tea straws to suck the spheres out of the drink. Otherwise follow the caviar steps to make smaller spheres. (See below).
Mint Syrup:
What You Will Need:
1 C. water
1 C. sugar
4 oz. mint leaves
fine mesh strainer and cheesecloth
Preparation:
Place 1 cup water and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring just to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add to your blender. Add the 4 ounces of mint and blend until smooth. Line your fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth and pour in the syrup. We are going to take out most of the solids and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate.
Cucumber Syrup:
What You Will Need:
1 C. cucumber juice (if you don't have a juicer, blend the cucumber and strain)
1 C. sugar
Preparation:
Place ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Let cool and place in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Gomme Syrup:
What You Will Need:
Stick Blender
Mixing glass that comes with the stick blender
1 oz gum arabic (food grade)
1/4 C. hot water
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. water
Preparation:
Heat the 1/4 cup of water to almost a boil and add to the mixing glass (the one that comes with the stick blender has tall sides and after you start blending the gum arabic you will understand why it is amazing). Add the gum arabic and use the stick blender to incorporate the ingredients. Now let it rest for a couple hours, the gum arabic will take awhile to soak up all the water. It will become a paste.
Now place the 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in the small sauce pan and bring to a boil and make sure all the sugar is dissolved and then add the gum paste and simmer for about 5 minutes and remove from heat. The gum arabic will bind to the sugar and make a silky syrup and adds a mouthfeel to cocktails that's hard to get otherwise. Gomme syrup was popular before refrigeration because it would keep the syrup for longer. Now with refrigeration it will keep for about 5 months.
Mint & Cucumber Pearls:
What You Will Need:
3/4 C. mint syrup
2 g sodium alginate
3/4 C. cucumber syrup
2 g sodium alginate
3/4 C. water
5g calcium lactate
4 C. water
Preparation:
In a small sauce pan combine sodium alginate and 3/4 cup water and using an immersion blender until smooth. Bring the contents to a boil and then remove from heat and transfer to a bowl and place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Mix the 3/4 cup mint syrup and 3/4 cup sodium alginate mixture. To make large pearls we used an ice tray that we bought from amazon that made tiny sphere ice cubes and poured the mixture into the molds and froze the syrup before we moved to the next step. If you want smaller pearls you can use an eye dropper for the next step and you don't have to wait for the spheres to freeze.
In a separate bowl mix the four cups water and sodium lactate until dissolved. If using the sphere molds just pop the frozen pearls into the mixture and let sit for a minute or two before puling them out and rinsing. If you use the eye dropper method, fill the dropper and squeeze in intervals to make beautiful little caviar. Use a fine mesh strainer to drain and rinse. For both if you aren't using right away store in a jar with water until use.