I make my own tonic, I have done a few batches and am still working on what I like best but I figure this is enough info to share so far.
Key notes, this is way different than store bought tonic. Much more of a old style cocktail, not as much a summer day refreshing drink.
Tonic
Ingredients
4 cups of water
3 cups of sugar
¼ cup of cinchona bark (quinine)
Zest of 1 lime
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
¼ cup of citric acid
1/8 tsp of kosher salt
2 hand crushed Juniper Berries
1 tsp dried bitter orange peel
1 cup of coarsely ground lemon grass
8 dashes of bitters
½ tsp heaping of coriander ground
Combine all except sugar into a large post and bring to a boil, turn heat to low and simmer for twenty minutes. Remove from heat and let cool and strain. The cinchona bark is very fine and needs to be stained, we used a metal coffee filter, others have used other filter type items. Once your are done, pour all back into a cleaned out large pot. With the stained, brownish tonic base you bring the liquid back to a simmer and add the sugar. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
I store in a glass bottle, some freeze batches and I hear it keeps great. I prefer to use it.
Variations that you may want to work with:
Less sugar, seemed to get a much more citrus flavor. 1 cup more is how we did the first batch and liked it that way.
Less bitters, as well as more bitters. Subject to taste, this is a good place to start.
Hand crushed Juniper Berries. First batch we only used 1, we like this flavor so we doubled it.
We are personally still working on a final recipe, but is that not part of the fun?
You can purchase Cinchona Bark, aka quinine, at Tenzing Momo in Seattle and they will ship it to you. Search engine it and you fill find them.
Final note, this tonic makes a darker vodka/gin and tonic then you are probably used to, and the flavor is a bit more intense. I would suggest a higher quality Gin for this, such as Ransom “Old Tom Gin”. The two combined creates a very unique cocktail. You do not need to add lime, at least we do not with this, but can if it suits you.
Since this is a much more intense flavor, we do sometimes still drink a store bought tonic with our cocktails when we want a more refreshing lighter cocktail.
Enjoy, that is what it is all about.
Todd
