Tonic water

Tonic is a carbonated drink flavored with quinine. Quinine is extracted from cinchona bark and has previously been used as a malaria medicine. Tonic originated around the year 1825, when the British inhabitants of India found the idea of mixing quinine with sparkling water, sugar and gin, as the medicine itself was far too bitter. This is how the Gin & Tonic drink came about, as a way of consuming malaria medicine.

In modern times, the content of quinine is significantly less, and the amount is even regulated by law. Many tonics use glucose syrup to sweeten them, but we recommend finding one that is additive-free, such as Fever-Tree Tonic.

The story of tonic

It's all about quinine, which is extracted from the reddish-brown bark of the cinchona tree. The tree grows naturally at an altitude of at least 1000 meters in the north-eastern part of the Andes mountains, and in the local language Quechua, the "magical" bark is called quina. Early sources indicate that it was the natives who told the Spanish about the bark's healing abilities, and in 1574 the Spanish botanist Nicolás Bautista Monardes (1493-1588) described the miracle medicine of the New World.

The anthropologist and Augustinian priest Antonio de la Calancha (1584-1654) was the first to link quinine and malaria in writing: "There grows a tree they call the fever tree (arbol de calenturas), whose cinnamon-colored bark, when powdered and given as drink, cures fever and malaria; it has produced miraculous results in Lima”.

The quinine was sorely needed. Around the European colonies, malaria and other tropical diseases were the biggest enemies, taking lots of dead, and thus labor and lost profits, with their further ravages. This applied, for example, to in India, where about 20 million died due to malaria in the period 1800-1921. This created a great demand for quinine, which only certain South American countries could meet. Therefore, the governments of Peru and Bolivia in particular set the price high. It was an untenable situation for all the European colonial powers who tried to buy seeds and plants so they could make their own plantations. However, the South Americans would not sell and severely punished all attempts at smuggling. However, with cunning, the great powers managed to get seeds and plants to Europe. During the 1850s and 1860s, many plantations were established in Africa, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

The earliest reference to quinine and soda is from June 6, 1835, when the company Hughes & Co advertised a soda with quinine in the Bristol Mercury newspaper. On 28 May 1858, mineral water manufacturer Erasmus Bond began selling a water that was marketed under the name "Pitt's Patent Tonic Water". Finally in 1870 Schweppes launched their Indian Tonic Water. The name became a concept and a classification that other manufacturers also came to produce.

The first written source for a gin and tonic is from the Indian sports newspaper "The Oriental Sporting Magazine" published on November 16, 1868. There was a report from the Sealkote Races where "there were loud cries for gin and tonic, brandy and sparkling water and cigars and cigars”.

The cinchona tree has been of remarkable importance to Western culture for 300 years. Behind every glass of tonic water is a fascinating hidden story of botany, health, empire and drink.

Different tonic waters

1724

The name comes from the tonic water from the quinine used to make it. The quinine comes from chinchona bark picked at an altitude of 1,724 meters in the Peruvian Andes. Whether the company behind the tonic water is Argentinian or Spanish is unknown, but it is owned by the same company behind the Mediterranean gin Gin Mare.

Due to the strength of the citrus flavor in this tonic, it is recommended to garnish your Gin & Tonic with something other than citrus fruits. An example of this could be Gin Mare with 1724 tonic, and garnished with rosemary and pepper.

Fentiman

In 1905, Thomas Fentiman was asked by another trader for a loan. As a guarantee, a recipe for botanically brewed ginger beer was provided. The loan was never repaid, and that's how Fentiman became the owner of the unique recipe. Sometime after that he started producing ginger beer according to the recipe which slowly became a success and the company grew to what it is today.

Fentiman tonic is a product with lots of flavor. It is made like ginger beer, where the ingredients include kaffir lime leaves, juniper berries and lemongrass. The taste is strong and fresh from citrus, light sweetness, and a clear bitter aftertaste from quinine. It's a powerful tonic, so it will completely dominate a gin such as Bombay Sapphire. If it is mixed instead with a strong gin such as Monkey 47, it goes up into a higher unity.

Fever-Tree

Fever-Tree was founded in 2004 by Tim Warrillow and Charles Rolls, who have experience in distilling gin and marketing gourmet food. In 2005, they launched their first product, Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water, on the market after 18 months of research for the best botanicals. They won the San Sebastion Gourmet Awards in 2006 with this particular tonic.

“Our goal was to make a tonic with ingredients of the highest quality. So we were thorough, we went back to the history books and at the British Library we found references from the 17th century that pointed to the last existing plantation with the original cinchona trees,” says Tim Warrillow. The plantation is located on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda and is run by Pharmakina, the world's leading manufacturer of quinine.

By mixing botanical oils with spring water and the best quality quinine from Acacia Zanthophloea (fever tree), Fever-Tree has managed to create a natural tonic with a completely clean and refreshing aroma. The taste is bitter from the quinine, accompanied by carbonation and a well-balanced sweetness from sugar cane. There are also fresh citrus notes. Fever-Tree is made from natural ingredients, without additives of any kind.

It is therefore not surprising that this particular tonic is the preferred tonic when many distilleries present their gin. Fever-Tree is designed to highlight citrus from lemon, orange and coriander seeds, ingredients found in most gins.

We recommend mixing this tonic with Geranium when making gin and tonic, and garnishing it with a lemon peel.

Other variations

In addition to the regular version of Fever-Tree, they have also created other versions where other flavors are in focus. We will describe the most interesting ones below.

The elderflower version is, as the name reveals, a tonic with an elderflower flavor. Fever-Tree has managed to make a tonic where the soft bitterness of quinine and the sweetness of elderflower work together without dominating. This makes this tonic perfect for a Gin & Tonic for those who like elderflower. Mixed with Bloom's gin, this tonic is at its best, and is a good combination especially for women who want a soft introduction to Gin & Tonic.

Gents

Gents originates from the Alps in Switzerland, where, in addition to quinine, it has been supplemented with the bitter root of the local flower, Yellow Gentian. In Latin, the flower is called Gentiana Lutea, from which the name Gents comes. To complete the taste, it also contains Sicilian lemons and sweetness from sugar beet.

Gent's tonic gives plenty of room for most gin, and therefore works excellently as an all-round tonic water when you want a lighter dry Gin & Tonic without too much sweetness.

Thomas Henry

Thomas Henry tonic water. Thomas Henry tonic water was launched in 2010, and is a tribute to the apothecary of the same name, who lived from 1734 to 1816. In 1767, Joseph Priestly invented sparkling water, which Thomas Henry was extremely impressed with. Thomas Henry became especially known in the late 1770s for selling this sparkling water. However, it was not until 1781 that the production of sparkling water became industrialized and Thomas Henry built a factory for it in Manchester.

The tonic water goes perfectly with many different types of gin, and is particularly characterized by its limited sweetness, as only a small amount of sugar has been added.