Recipe

• 2oz gin of choice (I recommend an Old Tom gin if you have one on hand, which is sweeter and better complements the bitterness of the tonic, though I just stuck with London Dry Tanqueray for today)
• .5oz tonic syrup (Small Hand Foods)
• 4oz (or to taste) soda water
• Lime

Fill a highball glass with ice, then add the tonic syrup, gin, and soda. Squeeze your preferred amount of lime (I prefer lime-heavy, so used around half a lime, sip and enjoy.

About

Happy Mother’s Day! Even with all the fancy recipes and flowery drinks out there, sometimes you really just wanna keep it simple with a Gin and Tonic…the classic! But wait…why is this brown? What exactly IS “tonic” anyway?

Tonic water was originally created as a medicinal concoction to help ward off malaria, made with quinine, a compound extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. The origin of the G+T lies in 19th century India, where British troops were using quinine to treat the malaria prevalent in the region. Due to the extreme bitterness of quinine on its own, they started mixing it with lime, sugar, and gin to make it more bearable, and lo and behold – we have the invention of the ageless classic. Today, most tonic waters contain a lot of sugar and very minimal traces of quinine (which actually glows in the dark!), mostly seeking the bitter flavors from it – luckily we have better treatments for malaria nowadays. 😉

This Small Hand Foods tonic syrup however is extremely potent, created by simmering cinchona bark in cane syrup, resulting in the nice brown color you see here. A conservative half ounce of this stuff, combined with gin, lime, and soda water presents you with the most deliciously complex Gin and Tonic, truly something different from most G&Ts you’ve tasted before! If you’re a G+T fan, I highly recommend you try this out to more closely experience the true essence and history of this amazing drink.