How to Make Your Own Tonic Water
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
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This subject has been covered many times before, but after numerous requests and some positive encouragement from a good friend this weekend I have decided to post my version of homemade tonic water.
The base for this recipe came from my friend Kevin Ludwig, who pioneered craft tonic water in Portland. His recipe can be found on page 76 of the March/April 2007 issue of Imbibe Magazine. This version is all mine.
My problem with homemade tonic water has always been a flavor profile that was too esoteric for the general audience. This recipe takes some of the positive qualities people have come to understand from commercial tonic water and updated them with fresh ingredients.
4 cups water
1 cup chopped lemongrass (roughly one large stalk)
¼ cup powdered cinchona bark
zest and juice of 1 orange
zest and juice of 1 lemon
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tsp whole allspice berries
¼ cup citric acid
¼ tsp Kosher salt
Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Cinchona Bark
Try a few different suppliers for powdered cinchona bark to see which you like best. Tenzing Momo has great products as a rule, but their cinchona can often be floral, which may or may not work for you. You can also find cinchona from bulk herbal medicine retailers and other specialty herb shops. I find the yellow variety to be milder than the red, so adding too many other flavors to the mix can overpower the quinine. Adjust your recipes accordingly.
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.
Once you’re satisfied with the clarity of your mix, heat it back up on the stovetop or microwave, and then add ¾ cup of agave syrup to each cup of your hot mix. Stir until combined, and store in the attractive bottle of your choice.
You now have a syrup that you can carbonate with seltzer water; I use my iSi soda siphon for some nicely-textured bubbles. To assemble a gin and tonic, use ¾ ounce of syrup, 1½ ounces of gin and 2 ounces of soda water over ice.
Once you’ve mastered your own tonic recipe, you can begin to experiment with different spices and fruit flavors to pair with specific gins. For instance, I’ve found that beefing up the orange peel results in a tonic that pairs nicely with Hendrick’s, but try playing off the coriander or cardamom in other gins and see what happens.
28 May 2008 at 6:33 am 1. JD
How long does the syrup stay fresh in the fridge?
Looks delicious - I’ll have to try this soon.
28 May 2008 at 7:46 am 2. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
I haven’t kept any around long enough to tell, but if you slipped a healthy splash of vodka into each bottle as a preservative, it should last a good long while.
Note that this will preclude using your syrup as a non-alcoholic beverage, though.
28 May 2008 at 11:32 am 3. Marleigh
So you’re going to bring samples of all your homemade goodies to Tales, right?
28 May 2008 at 11:36 am 4. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
For you, Marleigh, I will definitely bring a little suitcase of vials for you to try. Promise!
28 May 2008 at 5:09 pm 5. Rick
You have convinced me to add a soda siphon to my Amazon wish list (which means I’ll buy it shortly).
I’ll second Marleigh’s request for bring a treasure chest of fun to Tales.
28 May 2008 at 5:44 pm 6. Chris
Bloody fine-looking Tonic indeed!
By your recommendations, I think I might play with the quantities of sour citrus/lemongrass and pair with another citrus-forward Gin like 209 perhaps…any suggestions in this department?
Cheers!
28 May 2008 at 6:29 pm 7. Eugenia
Oh dear, if anything can flush me out of my reclusive bunker, it will be this!
28 May 2008 at 10:00 pm 8. David Hirsch
Hey Jeff,
Fine looking G&T. Best looking one I’ve seen.
You wouldn’t happen to have a lemoncello recipe would you?
David
29 May 2008 at 12:53 am 9. Scott
I just finished making an awesome mojito using your recipe. Now I have to go order some bark and try this one, since a G&T is my favourite drink.
29 May 2008 at 3:55 am 10. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Rick and Marleigh: It’s a done deal.
Chris, I think with a big, muscle-y, citrusy gin like No. 209 you could cut down on the fruit in the tonic water and beef up a little spice. 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!
Eugenia, hope to see you soon.
David, thank you. Lemoncello is coming, I promise.
Scott, drop a line here in the comments section and let us know how it turns out!
Jeff
29 May 2008 at 8:20 am 11. mary
i am looking for some suggestions…i like sweet drinks but im tired of the same old stuff…i drink white Russians…could you rec amend some other sweet drinks? thanks
29 May 2008 at 9:00 am 12. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Mary, try this and this.
29 May 2008 at 9:48 am 13. Jefffrane
This all looks wonderful, Jeffrey, but it would be much more simple if you just made the syrups and gave them to me. I’m sure I could never create it as perfectly as you do.
29 May 2008 at 9:58 am 14. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Jeff, you’d be surprised at just how well you can make this on your own. It’s honestly that simple.
29 May 2008 at 10:18 am 15. Mark Chu-Carroll
In the recipe, you specify 1/4 cup of the powdered cinchona bark, but all of the vendors that I can find sell it by the ounce. About how much do I need for a batch of syrup?
29 May 2008 at 10:29 am 16. Rob Combs
Howdy-Ho, Jeffanator
I appreciate you tuning me on to making my own tonic. Fun stuff. I’m on my seventh batch of tonic water & I think I’m getting closer. 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.
You da man, Jeff.
29 May 2008 at 11:09 am 17. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Mark
Sorry about that. According to my digital scale, ¼ cup of cinchona bark is coming in right at one ounce.
Hope this helps!
29 May 2008 at 11:13 am 18. Bastian
Jeffrey,
if you bring some to New Orleans you might as well carry some to the Berlin Bar Convent…I’d love to sample the stuff;-)
29 May 2008 at 11:15 am 19. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Bastian
I’ll definitely do that!
29 May 2008 at 12:08 pm 20. Chris
So you should add ‘mind reader’ to your list of qualifications. For the No. 209 pairing, those tweaks were almost exactly what I was thinking (though I’ll admit star anise didn’t spring to mind).
I’ll give it a shot & post back with results…
Cheers & Thanks again!
29 May 2008 at 12:44 pm 21. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Chris - I’ll be sure to polish up the old resume. Let us know how it turns out!
29 May 2008 at 2:58 pm 22. Tristan
Nice recipe, mine (http://www.tristanstephenson.com/wordpress/2008/01/03/tonic-water-recipe/) is similar but I don’t use the juice as shortens the lifespan of the syrup a lot. Lemongrass sounds cool though!
Salt? Does that work? I’m thinking of the old trick of adding salt to tonic and it tasting sweeter, because it diverts your attention from the bitterness… Personally I want that bitterness in my tonic. Agave syrup sounds cool too…
29 May 2008 at 8:43 pm 23. Chris W
Thanks for this recipe Jeff. I’ve recently bought a juicer to make ginger beer, and now I guess I’ll need to get a soda siphon to make my own tonic. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but hadn’t found a good recipe until now.
Two questions, though. First, is agave syrup readily available? I’m not familiar with that ingredient. Second, in the G&T recipe, is it 3/4 oz of carbonated syrup and then 2oz of regular soda water, or 3/4 oz of the non-carbonated syrup and then 2oz of the carbonated version. Sorry, I’m confused about which is which.
Thanks again, can’t wait to try this!
29 May 2008 at 9:23 pm 24. ConnorH
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. Quinine is on the “prescription drug” list and it apparently has a myriad of nasty sice effects. But diet tonic works for me–homeopathic, I guess.
30 May 2008 at 1:13 am 25. Scott
Chris,
I’ve been able to find agave syrup a couple places, including BevMo! and Whole Foods Market. I’m sure you could find it at a more upscale supermarket in your area.
30 May 2008 at 9:11 am 26. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Tristan - Nice recipe you’ve got there yourself! I, of course, don’t have a problem with the shelf-life of a syrup containing fruit juice, but I’m making twenty gins-and-tonics a night.
The salt may mute the bitterness a tad, but it helps bring out all of the other flavors. It’s still nice and bitter.
Chris W - That’s ¾ oz of syrup to 2 oz of carbonated water. You should find agave to pretty common, they’ve even got it in the bulk section of my neighborhood grocery store.
30 May 2008 at 9:12 am 27. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Oh, ConnorH - Cinchona is the source of the quinine, but I can’t speak as to any medical benefits. I’m not a doctor.
31 May 2008 at 6:05 pm 28. RMS
I’d love to try this with my new favourite gin — Bulldog!
I wonder if honey could be used instead of the agave syrup? Has anyone tried this recipe with honey? Thanks so much for sharing!!!
01 Jun 2008 at 10:41 am 29. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Honey is going to bring a lot of flavor to the party, but you could definitely give it a shot. I don’t know how much you’d use, but I would start with ½ cup in place of the ¾ cup of agave syrup.
Don’t forget to let us know how it turns out!
02 Jun 2008 at 6:31 pm 30. Chris
Ok, so Citrus Tonic #1 is complete, by the following recipe:
4 Cups: Water
1 1/4 Cups: Lemongrass, julienned
Zest & juice of 2 Limes
1/2 whole Star Anise
1/4 Cup: powdered cinchona bark
1/4 Cup: Citric Acid
1/2 Tsp: whole allspice berries
1/4 Tsp: whole Cardamom pods, bruised
1/4 Tsp: Kosher Salt
————
As a stand-alone Tonic water, not so awesome - a little too heavy on the bitter/sour side of the spectrum. It gets a little more manageable with an extra splash of seltzer.
When I made a G&T with the last of my Distillery 209 Gin (& the extra spalsh of seltzer) however, it came out wonderfully! Didn’t need to add a squeeze of Lime to the drink & the anise and Cardamom came through on the finish alongside the various botanicals of the gin.
All in all, pretty excellent - though I’m going to fiddle with some of the proportions - maybe a touch less lime, sub back in some lemon.
Cheers & Thanks again!
02 Jun 2008 at 6:34 pm 31. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Nice work, Chris! I think mine’s probably a little sweeter/fruitier with the orange I used (actually a Tangelo), so that explains it.
Have you tried yours with Aviation gin? I’d think that the creamy sweetness would offset the bitter/sourness in a pleasant way.
I look forward to hearing more!
Jeff
02 Jun 2008 at 8:43 pm 32. Chris
It’s funny - I’ve been looking for Aviation for a little while now but to no avail (who distributes that outside of Oregon, more specifically to the greater NJ/NY area?).
I’m sadly also at a loss for more #209 - probably should’ve scaled the Tonic recipe down a bit as I’ve now got a big bottle of tonic, but no more 209 left to mix it with.
On the creamy v. bitter/sour note - the tonic mixes passably well with Plymouth - the ‘velvety’ character of it does kind of what your saying. Sadly, the flavor of it gets a little bit overpowered - not bad, but not quite what the 209 mix was. I’m wondering how a Genever would fare here - I’ll check that out next.
Cheers!
02 Jun 2008 at 9:19 pm 33. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
I don’t know about their distributorship, but you might check their website.
I can see Plymouth going well with your recipe. I’ve got a bottle Genever here at home, so I might have to bring it to work tomorrow night to test it with my own.
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!
07 Jun 2008 at 4:41 pm 34. Deana
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.
09 Jun 2008 at 10:00 am 35. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Deana
I should have mentioned this in the original post, because you’re right, the mixture will foam up if you blast carbonated water directly into the syrup.
An old bartender’s trick is this: squirt the soda water into your cocktail shaker (or any other vessel) and then slowly pour the carbonated water into the glass containing the syrup. 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)
Thanks for writing.
13 Jun 2008 at 9:14 am 36. ingi
Where can I find cinchona bark? Is there a website where one can buy online?
Thank
15 Jun 2008 at 5:37 pm 37. Kevin
Great recipe… I haven’t tried this yet, but do you think running the cooled down base through a Brita water filter would kill the taste?
Kevin
15 Jun 2008 at 5:54 pm 38. Kevin
And for Ingi… this is where I and a few others I know have purchased cinchona…
http://rain-tree.com/products/quinine-powder.htm
15 Jun 2008 at 10:32 pm 39. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Kevin
I don’t know, but as much of the point of a Brita is to filter out impurities, I can see it removing much of the flavor. Only one way to find out, though.
And thanks for the link, it’s good to have more options and that price looks quite reasonable.
28 Jul 2008 at 6:22 pm 40. Andrew
I’m a bit confused as to how you’re carbonating the tonic. 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?
Thanks.
29 Jul 2008 at 12:58 am 41. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Andrew
Yes.
Seriously, though, you could do both. I keep my soda and syrup separate for this one, but that’s just my personal preference. There’s no reason why you couldn’t fill your iSi soda siphon with the right proportions and go.
29 Jul 2008 at 1:55 pm 42. Andrew
Jeffery,
Batch one following your recipe turned out pretty darn good. Nice call on the French press, all other stories of homemade tonic I’ve encountered involve hours of slow straining.
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.
I’ll let y’all know how it turns out after my shift tonight. With a little luck, I can convince my managers to start putting house-made tonic on the menu.
29 Jul 2008 at 2:00 pm 43. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Nice work, Andrew, and good luck!
02 Aug 2008 at 7:35 pm 44. Kolbe
Yay, I just finished my first batch based on your recipe. *sip*
The only thing I’m a bit surprised by is the filtering. I expected it would be a hassle, but it’s pretty remarkably how suspended in solution all the bark particles still are even hours and hours later.
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?
03 Aug 2008 at 3:20 am 45. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Kolbe - I settle for a slightly opaque syrup. If there are particles still in suspension, I don’t consider it a major cosmetic flaw, and by the time you water it down with gin and soda, the particles become pretty much negligible.
03 Aug 2008 at 10:30 pm 46. Chris Hansen
Jeffrey, thanks for the recipe! It turned out really nicely for me and I’m looking forward to sharing it with my friends. I’m sipping my second G&T, this one with Rogue spruce gin–a nice complement.
I do find that the allspice makes it a little too..yule-tidy for my taste. Is it needed to mellow the bitter of the quinine? Do you have a suggestion for a substitute?
05 Aug 2008 at 12:57 pm 47. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Hey Chris Hansen - You know the rules around here. Don’t like the allspice? 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.
10 Aug 2008 at 7:57 pm 48. Tom
I worked up a derivative of this recipe. It turned out tasting almost tea-like, which took a couple G&Ts to get used to, but the added nuance was appreciated. I’m going to throw in some juniper berries next to see how if accents the juniper in my gin. I left out the lemongrass, orange and allspice in my first recipe.
One thing I wasn’t ready for was the lack of sweetener in it. The store bought tonics contain loads more sugar than I realized, so I’m going to make up a batch of the simple syrup to add.
10 Aug 2008 at 8:01 pm 49. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Tom
I think you missed this crucial step:
12 Aug 2008 at 1:11 am 50. Tom
I ended up liking leaving it out, as I could easily flavor the sweetness, depending on my mood/food. I just got done making the tonic recipe again, and didn’t go through with the sweetener, preferring to add it as needed.
One thing I don’t understand is if the purpose of the citric acid is to act as a flavoring agent to give the tonic ‘bite’, or if it’s there for it’s preservative qualities.
12 Aug 2008 at 10:04 am 51. Dood
It’s been a long time since you made it for me, but I just have to reiterate how amazing this tonic water recipe makes a gin and tonic. The drink Jeffrey made me in New Orleans was easily the best G&T I’ve ever had.
12 Aug 2008 at 10:06 am 52. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Aw, Dood, that’s the best way I could have started my morning. Thanks!
And, Tom, the answer is yes.
12 Aug 2008 at 11:59 am 53. rich phillips
Can any of you help me with a good recipe for 12 bridges gin?
We made it just to drink out of a glass and I’ve been asked to make a cocktail. I’m a distiller, not a mixologist!
Rich
13 Aug 2008 at 7:28 am 54. Mark C. Chu-Carroll
So - as someone who has not typically liked G&T in the past, but loves the taste of this tonic, can you recommend a good beginners gin, for up to $50/bottle?
13 Aug 2008 at 11:26 am 55. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Mark - Try Rich’s (above) 12 Bridges, Aviation, Martin Miller’s, Beefeater, Plymouth, Hendricks, Tanqueray No. 10, or wait it out and see what everyone else has to say!
13 Aug 2008 at 6:24 pm 56. Mark C. Chu-Carroll
Interestingly, I actually have a bottle of Tanqueray #10. I picked it up a few months back for cooking - I had a recipe that called for a gin-based marinade. I didn’t realize when I bought it that the #10 was anything different - just needed a marinade for a steak, and tanqueray was a familiar brand.
I just gave it a try; interesting. Not my favorite - but I can definitely see why it’s so traditional with the tonic. 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.