In an effort to create a bitters-based Tom Collins (and one-up fellow New York bartender Sam Ross’s Grapefruit Collins), Brad Farran created its “hotter, younger cousin,” the Bitter Tom made with Campari and Bénédictine. “Kevin Diedrich, who I was working with at the time, really helped to crystallize this cocktail by suggesting that I use pomegranate molasses to bring it together.”
Bitter Tom
Brad Farran | Durham, North Carolina

Ingredients
Serving: 1
- 2 ounces gin (preferably Tanqueray)
- 1/2 ounce Campari
- 3/4 ounce lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce simple syrup (1:1, sugar:water)
- 1 teaspoon Bénédictine
- 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
- 1 ounce soda water
Garnish: grapefruit twist
Directions
- Add all ingredients except soda water to a cocktail shaker.
- Add ice and roll back and forth from shaker tin to shaker tin.
- Strain over ice into a Collins glass.
- Top with soda and garnish with a grapefruit twist.