Can you make tonic water

This basic recipe goes well with gin and is a great starting point for playing with your own unique herb and spice combinations. Zest lemon and lime and place in medium saucepan. Juice lemon and lime and add juice to saucepan, along with water, cinchona bark, citric acid powder, lemongrass, and sugar. Bring to a boil on high heat.

Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and let mixture steep for 20 minutes. Strain mixture through two layers of cheesecloth placed in a fine-mesh sieve. Strain again if there are still particles to be removed. This liquid is the tonic syrup. Place the tonic syrup in a sealable glass container and refrigerate for at least two hours before use. To make tonic water, combine the syrup with carbonated water, mixing one part syrup to four parts water.

Do not combine them in a large batch unless you intend to use all the tonic water at once. Instead, combine syrup and fresh carbonated water for each individual use. Fine-mesh sieve and cheesecloth.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Homemade tonic water is a fun way to enjoy cocktails and impress your guests. Made from citrus zests, barks, herbs, spices, and simple syrup for unique flavors that create wonderful cocktails. In fact, it may be my favorite drink. Wow, have I been missing out!

Ever realize how even simple recipes like cookies and brownies made at home are better than anything you can buy at a store? The same goes for homemade tonic water. To make things simple I first used a DIY tonic kit that comes with all the dry ingredients you need. You could also find each item separately, which is what I do now. Citrus juice is very overpowering and tart, while zest has strong flavors without the acidity.

Store tonic water in the fridge for up to a month. The citric acid helps act as a natural preservative. However, homemade tonic water is not room temperature stable without added preservatives. Longer storage: Tonic water without any club soda added can be frozen. Simply heat equal parts water and granulated sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir often until melted. Remove from heat and cool completely before using. How much will it make?

Lightly stir in 3 ounces of chilled club soda and serve garnished with a lime wedge. Leave a comment below and star rating if you made this recipe or want to share your thoughts.

The recipe makes 96 ounces of tonic water concentrate mixed with club soda , not including alcohol. Thanks and enjoy! Well, I learnt something today! This is very interesting — and I hope to give it a try soon. My friends and I are big fans of gin, so it would be so fun to have some homemade tonic water with it next time! I love gin and tonic and never tried making tonic water myself.

A very timely post for the fast approaching summer. Love the different options you give for the tonic water!

I make infused water, but this tonic water sounds intriguing and so refreshing for the sweltering weather that is upon us. Homemade is always better and healthier! I must try it someday oh and I looove that glass! Im definitely going to check this out!

Thanks for sharing! What would it be like if you brewed the tonic, like your ginger beer? Would you need to boost the sugar content to feed the yeasts? PS: concerning storing; how about using Vitamin C instead of citric acid and adding it after the boiled liquid has cooled down. This should 1. Very nice recipe! Just tried it with some strong juniper genever. Due to lack of agave syrup I used honey, which gives it a nice additional round up…and I measured free hand..

Jeff, do you have any recommendations knowing this? I just made it, photographed the process, and posted it to Instructables.

Thanks for the recipe and guidance, I am so jazzed about this. I used fresh stalks of lemongrass. Used citric acid salt dry form , and I used the powdered cinchona bark.

All of the rest to the letter of the recipe, although my stalks of lemongrass were small so I only made a half batch. Results: excellent! Bitter, sour and sweet in a strong but balanced combination. I look forward to experimenting with the ingredients in the next batch. Has anyone tried using barley malt extract or honey as the sweetener? I am curious about how that might work.

Jeffrey, This idea got me so excited I ordered the ingredients the day I read your article, but my first attempt turned out terribly. Brutally acidic, overwhelmingly lemony, and with hardly any discernable quinine bite. A few potential problems I noticed: 1. My cinchona came as intact bark, rather than powder, though I sent it through a food processor for a good while before using it. Let me know what you think; I am determined to get this right.

Also, is there any way to make the final syrup colorless? That would look extremely polished! Anyone know where you can buy cinchona bark and citric acid in NYC?

Please check out this site for hidden names of msg — it might shine some light on the citric acid subject. Hello Jeffrey, I am pretty lazy. Where can I purchase traditional tonic water in the U. I found sites in London but not one here. Thank You.

Acids make things tart, there is citric acid naturally present in lemons, limes and other citrus see name similarity fruits. There is nothing wrong with eating it either, it is some amino acids combined. Amino acids are present in food naturally, and yeast or miso paste naturally has the amino acids present, giving a similar flavor effect without it being MSG. But then again, so are salt and sugar. Go ahead, use citric acid. I highly recommend it over others, vinegar would ruin the flavor for example.

Too much juice may throw off the balance. Of course this will probably throw everything else off and need more readjustment. Colonials mixed it with gin to make their daily dose of medicine more palatable and it IS possible to overdose. There are probably other safer bitter herbs you could use, a woman making it for herself could probably make it with cramp bark and get an equally similar bitter drink.

Dandelion and chamomile are bitter and much safer even in what most people would consider to be high quantity — and they are MILDly bitter. So if cinchon bark is too bitter, I would suggest playing with these substitutes. I will make the quinine version as my family swears by it as a leg cramp remedy, but I will also try a dandelion root version for more casual use.

Richard, whoever told you citric acid is a form of MSG is either woefully misinformed or is messing with you. MSG is monosodium glutamate, a salt of a naturally-occurring amino acid MSG itself is produced in weird industrial processes and is basically to natural glutamate as high-fructose corn syrup is to fruit juice.

It has a flavor termed umami, found in the taste of soy sauce, marmite, Parmesan and other cheeses, meat and meat broth, tomatoes, etc. Malic acid is also okay. I tried making this recipe without citric acid, and it was really missing a big part of the flavor profile. I filtered through a French press and then through a paper towel layered over a coffee filter.

Color is beautiful. Very nice in those proportions. I think I overdid the cardamom, though. I think some commercial tonic waters are fairly gentle in terms of bitterness, but this one I could hardly choke down more than an ounce or so. The citrusy tones are really good I added some coriander but the bitterness is intense.

And there is a distinct bile-y note to it. That was another reason I was considering using the tea instead of powder. It seems that with all the powder that is left, the amount of quinine would be high. Can you use quinine bark tea? Zooscape sells this and it seems like you could avoid the straining issues by using it.

Most most interesting variation was adding pomegranate molasses instead of lemon juice. One of my lemons was unexpectedly rotten on the inside, so I went hunting for something else with a pleasant sour flavor. I saw the pomegranate molasses, and threw in a good-sized dollop, to approximate the amount of sourness from the lemon.

The result was interesting. Howdy, I just made my first batch.. Needed a lot more agave syrup a little more than a cup to balance it out at least a little. The allspice berrys smell like christmas, why are they in the recipe? I feel like it destroyed the whole fresh tonic water citrus odeur. Otherwise a realy nice recipe, thanks! Just… WOW. I was too nervous to try my espresso machine, so I divvied up the powder into two coffee filters, which I twisted up and tied with kitchen string.

Next time, I will try to located make-your-own tea bags. I am planning on making this; I finally got my bark powder and just need to fetch some lemongrass and find me some time. Well, after a year, I finally made this. I was never a fan of gin and tonic, but I have to say, this has changed my mind.

One stalk of lemongrass in MN was only enough for a half recipe. I filtered ten times through paper towels before using a coffee filter with good results. Now, I love a gin and tonic using Tanqueray Rangpur.

Wonderful and refreshing! Thanks, Jeff! After much searching I found a place that sells cinchona and is not out of stock. They disclaim, however, that this product is for research or collecting purposes only and is not for human consumption I do not actually collect powdered bark, and if I did it would be cinnamon. They appear to have these disclaimers on things that are or are similar to prescription or restricted drugs.

JC — Get yourself a seventy-nine cent bottle of club soda and add two ounces of the stuff to three quarters of an ounce of syrup and two ounces of gin. Squeeze some lime on top, with ice, of course, and you should be fine. Has anyone tried sweeting the tonic with Stevia? Boodles gin if you can find it is fantastic with this. Thanks Tom. I have a reddish batch sans agave sitting in my fridge. After it settles, I plan on just pouring off the top and discard the liquid holding most of the powder on the bottom.

The Concierge I used a coffee press as well. I usually stop after that, then let it settle overnight.

Thanks for posting all of this information. I made the recipe, using a metal strainer, followed by a french press. The french press seemed to remove very little compared to the amount still left in suspension. I was left with a maroon colored liquid prior to adding the agave. What is the color of your liquid before adding the agave? Do I have the right color or is there another way to make it more clear? I am planning on making this on Friday after work. I am concerned with preserving it for as long as possible.

Thus, I plan on storing half in freezer. As far as gin is concerned, I really like the flavor of the Cascade Mountain gin. A syrup would just bring too much additional water to the party. Tanqueray Oh boy, is it delicious!

Obviously, still sampling…. Interestingly, I actually have a bottle of Tanqueray I picked it up a few months back for cooking — I had a recipe that called for a gin-based marinade. I just gave it a try; interesting. It blends nicely with the bitterness, and really brings out the citrus.

But the cardamom that I put in my tonic clashes with it — too much citrus with the spice of the cardamom. Can any of you help me with a good recipe for 12 bridges gin? Stir until combined, and store in the attractive bottle of your choice. I worked up a derivative of this recipe. I left out the lemongrass, orange and allspice in my first recipe. Hey Chris Hansen — You know the rules around here.

Leave it out. Seriously, you could try juniper berries, cardamom, coriander, whatever you like. Just be sure to come back and report your findings here.

Jeffrey, thanks for the recipe! I do find that the allspice makes it a little too.. Is it needed to mellow the bitter of the quinine? Do you have a suggestion for a substitute?

Kolbe — I settle for a slightly opaque syrup. I tried the French press, but the liquid is still opaque. I tried coffee filters, which, as you suggest, are mostly useless. Are you seeing different results with the French press, or do you settle for an opaque syrup? Batch one following your recipe turned out pretty darn good. Batch two is on the stove now and aimed towards the cucumber notes of 12 Bridges gin. I cut back on the citrus and allspice, bumped up the lemongrass and added dried lavender.

With a little luck, I can convince my managers to start putting house-made tonic on the menu. Seriously, though, you could do both. Do you add water and syrup to a soda siphon, or do you keep the syrup in a separate bottle and simply add soda from the gun? Only one way to find out, though. Voila, no more foam. This trick is essential when making drinks like the Ramos Fizz, when squirting soda water directly into the glass would result in egg foam all over yourself and the bar and undoubtedly your customers.

We tried the tonic recipe—so refreshing on a hot day! But a weird thing: If we put the soda on the syrup it foams up like crazy, but syrup into soda was no problem. I can see Plymouth going well with your recipe. On a side-note, the folks that produce Aviation tell me that they intended for it to be a Genever- style gin, so you might be on to something with your experiments.

Let us know how you fare! On the creamy v. Sadly, the flavor of it gets a little bit overpowered — not bad, but not quite what the mix was. Nice work, Chris! Have you tried yours with Aviation gin? It gets a little more manageable with an extra splash of seltzer. Honey is going to bring a lot of flavor to the party, but you could definitely give it a shot.

I wonder if honey could be used instead of the agave syrup? Has anyone tried this recipe with honey? Thanks so much for sharing!!! The salt may mute the bitterness a tad, but it helps bring out all of the other flavors.

Is cinchona the source of quinine? I find that diet tonic—which does contain a bit of quinine—keeps my legs from cramping at night. Nothing else works. But diet tonic works for me—homeopathic, I guess. Thanks for this recipe Jeff. Two questions, though. First, is agave syrup readily available? Lemongrass sounds cool though! Does that work? Agave syrup sounds cool too…. For the No. Sorry about that.

I appreciate you tuning me on to making my own tonic. Fun stuff. Some interesting spices that I think work well are: — Grains of Paradice, — Green Cardamon, — Corriander I pulsed the spices in a spice grinder a few times to extract more flavor out of the seeds.

About how much do I need for a batch of syrup? This all looks wonderful, Jeffrey, but it would be much more simple if you just made the syrups and gave them to me.

Mary, try this and this. Chris, I think with a big, muscle-y, citrusy gin like No. Try an additional half cup of lemongrass, drop the orange, swap the lemon out for a second lime, and throw a star anise in there.

See what happens! I just finished making an awesome mojito using your recipe. Your email address will not be published. These are the books and tools I use every single day to make drinks at home and behind the bar. Clicking on a product takes you to Amazon, which helps me keep this site running, so thank you in advance!

UPDATE: So much has been discovered since this post originally went up, about the dangers of quinine in people with quinine sensitivity. As the rain pummels the ground here in the Pacific Northwest, a little window of blue sky nestled between two dark clouds in the neighboring distance makes me wish I were watching the rain fall from across a dark ocean, my little Caribbean fishing….

Click here to learn how to make this and other drinks for a slushie machine! Toggle navigation. Search Search. A note about cinchona bark Try a few different suppliers for powdered cinchona bark to see which you like best. And now, the recipe…. Once mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and strain out solids using a strainer or chinois. You'll need to fine-strain the mixture, as it still contains quite a bit of the cinchona bark.

You can use a coffee filter and wait for an hour or more, or do as I do and run the whole mixture through a French coffee press. You now have a syrup that you can carbonate with seltzer water; I use my iSi soda siphon for some nicely-textured bubbles.

Recipe printed courtesy of jeffreymorgenthaler. November 27, at pm. Jeffrey Morgenthaler says:. November 29, at am. Peter Liepmann says:. September 19, at pm. Jef says:. March 4, at am. March 4, at pm. February 17, at am. March 1, at pm. August 2, at am. Dave says:. July 3, at pm. Miramew says:.

May 30, at pm. Shelby says:. January 28, at am. Erin says:. December 9, at am. Elijah says:. December 19, at pm. JohnN says:. October 30, at am. Stine Dudda says:. July 2, at am. TheViech says:. August 23, at am. Joe Stachecki says:. October 1, at pm. Don Ruthig says:. June 23, at am. Neily Bob says:. April 19, at pm. Hana says:. March 17, at am. John Barrett says:. January 3, at am. Kevin says:. October 29, at pm. September 12, at pm. Andy F says:. September 2, at am. Dan AKA roaming-gastrognome says:.

September 1, at pm. Matthew Andrews says:. August 9, at pm. Dave Guth says:. July 14, at pm. Peter Couzens says:. July 12, at am. June 12, at am. Randy Hanson says:. June 9, at pm. Phoebe says:. June 6, at pm. Jacque says:. June 5, at am. June 1, at am. Tim Wright says:.

May 18, at pm. Undine says:. January 13, at pm. Jacqueline Vuong says:. December 28, at pm. Dora says:. October 2, at am. October 1, at am. Holcomb says:. September 27, at pm. Barbara says:. September 24, at am. September 15, at am. Ralph M. Rollo says:. June 21, at pm. Atalanta says:. May 4, at pm. CPepe says:. May 2, at pm. Christophe says:. Glenda says:. April 4, at pm. StephK says:.

January 18, at am. Sue B says:. January 4, at pm. October 18, at am. Boara Gin says:. October 8, at am. Jeff Keys says:. October 7, at pm.

Zachary says:. September 30, at pm. August 12, at pm. Mark says:. Nick says:. July 30, at pm. July 5, at pm. Bruce says:. July 4, at pm. Matt says:. June 23, at pm. Petro says:. June 16, at pm. Kelly says:. June 13, at pm. May 23, at am. Eric says:. Adam says:. April 30, at am. April 24, at pm. April 13, at pm. April 1, at pm. April 1, at am. Mike says:. March 26, at am. March 18, at am. Alex says:. March 8, at pm. Robert says:. February 22, at pm. Vineyard Paul says:. February 20, at pm.

Nakaala says:. February 14, at pm. Suzy says:. February 5, at pm. February 3, at pm. Ciaran says:. January 26, at pm. Deborah says:. January 17, at pm. January 16, at pm. Robbie says:. January 12, at am. Phil says:. November 26, at pm. Mark C. Chu-Carroll says:.