Tonic water

Where would gin be without it?

We’ve done an article on gin, so it seems only fitting to add one about it’s long time companion tonic.

Let’s keep this simple, tonic water is a carbonated drink flavoured with quinine. It can contain other flavouring ingredients, but it doesn’t have to.

Quinine is extracted from the bark of the Cinchona tree, and has been traditionally used to treat malaria. The problem is that quinine on it’s own tastes absolutely vile.

Tonic water was created in 1825 when British army officers stationed in India mixed quinine with sugar and water, in an attempt to create a daily drink that would act as a malaria prophylaxis. This still didn’t make it overly palatable, so to counteract the taste they decided to try mixing it with gin. Thus not only was tonic water born, but so was one of the worlds classic mixed drinks, the G&T.

The tonic water available today tastes a world away from what they were drinking in India 190 years ago, for a couple of important reasons.

Firstly, the level of quinine used in modern tonic is much lower than it was back then. This is a good thing because in regular large doses quinine itself is quite toxic.

Tonic is also made with other botanical ingredients. These can be either natural or artificial, depending on the quality of the tonic.

It’s carbonated. I don’t know where the carbonation crept into the history, but in 1825 it wasn’t, and today it is.

Finally, the majority of tonic water you’ll find in the shops today has a large amount of high fructose corn syrup added to it. Those that don’t (the expensive ones) are often sweetened with agave syrup.

Supermarket brands

Every supermarket has it’s own brand of tonic water, and at this level they all taste pretty much the same.

They (generally) have two big problems. The first is that they all seem to lose their carbonation very quickly once they are opened, and the second is that they are all hugely calorific due to corn syrup used to sweeten them.

The midrange

In the midrange (at least in Europe), the two big brands are Schwepps and Nordic Mist.

There really isn’t much to choose between them. They are virtually identical in price, Nordic Mist has a slightly stronger taste, but seems to have less carbonation.

Strangely there is one other thing that they seem to have in common, they both (in my experience) hold their carbonation much better when bought in bottles than in cans. I have no idea why that might be, but it is.

and from the sublime …

There are a couple of premium brands of tonic water out there, but you are going to pay more for them, either slightly or horrifically more depending on what country you live in.

It is a sad but very true fact that with tonic water, you really do get what you pay for.

Fever Tree is (according to them) served in six of the top ten restaurants in the world, including El Bulli and The Fat Duck. If it’s good enough for Ferran and Heston, then who are we to argue?

You really can taste the difference between Fever Tree and a cheaper tonic water. It has a much better balance between the sweet and bitter tastes, and has a more herbal flavour.

It is also much lower in calories than Schwepps or the supermarket brands due to the fact that it isn’t full of high fructose corn syrup.

… to the ridiculous

Then there is Q Tonic.

Now, Q Tonic is made from Peruvian quinine and natural agar syrup. I’m sure that it tastes wonderful, but I don’t know. The reason that I don’t know is that where I live, they want ?18 for four small bottles of it. It seems to be a lot cheaper in the USA but I live in Europe.

Maybe it’s stupid that I am willing to pay for premium gin, but not for the tonic to go with it, but that just seems like too much money for tonic water. Especially when Fever Tree is so good, and is so much cheaper.

Although it sounds exotic and tricky, you can pretty easily make your own tonic water.

Check back here for a recipe coming soon.