Cocktails with Old Tom gin
Old Tom gin is a lightly sweetened style of gin — historically the bridge between malty Dutch genever and bone-dry London gin. It has no fixed legal definition, so how sweet it is (and whether it’s neutral-based or maltier and barrel-aged) varies by maker.
ABV40–47%Standard strength is the norm; the point of Old Tom is the sweetness and roundness, not the proof.
How it's used
Old Tom stands in for gin where you want juniper up front but a softer, sweeter edge — and it needs less added sugar to balance than dry gin. It’s the gin the original Tom Collins and Martinez were built on, and it makes a rounder Negroni. Since it’s already sweetened, the drink’s sugar is cut back to match.
Substitutes for Old Tom gin
Another Old Tom swaps in one for one, though sweetness varies by maker. London dry gin works with a little syrup: about a third of a barspoon of 2:1 syrup per 50 ml of gin, then taste.
Under EU rules it may contain no more than 0.1 g of sweetening per liter, so it is essentially unsweetened.
Made with malt wine, so heavier and grainier: in place of Old Tom it turns the drink bready.
