Home made tonic recipe

I know it's the dead of winter but this idea came about during one of many late night chats on Crosby Lake and we will be serving many of these this coming summer and summers to come. I tried making the Imbibe Magazine tonic recipe. Straining it was absolute hell. I tried coffee filters and that just plain didn't work. I finally came up with the idea of using my fine mesh French chinois. That worked pretty well but it was still pretty cloudy.

Jeffrey Morganthaler's recipe calls for cut chinchona rather than powdered (basically it's the bark broken into very small pieces). That makes a huge difference in straining. What was impossible becomes dead easy. I also found that the large amounts of zest called for in many recipes resulted in a slightly stewed flavour that I didn't think was particularly pleasing. To that end, I've tried a more basic approach and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I will continue tinkering but this is what I have so far (maybe try a bit of lemon grass or try a cold infusion of lime zest). A simplified Jeffrey Morganthaler recipe that works quite well if (and this is important) you take the time to squeeze a lime wedge into the drink.

4 cups water
1/4 cup cut chinchona bark
1/4 cup citric acid
1 tsp whole all spice berries
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 cups white sugar

Combine all the ingredients except the sugar in a non-reactive saucepan (for the citric acid). Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Cool slightly and strain. I used my chinois but I bet a french coffee press like a bodum would work pretty well. A regular fairly fine strainer followed by a pass through a coffee filter would work probably work as well. Straining before adding sugar makes this whole process a lot easier.

After straining return the clear infusion to the rinsed pan and add 3 cups sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. It should look like this.

Syrupy but not cloudy. 

I store it in a 1 litre mason jar. Lasts quite a while. 

You will need to tinker with the proportions you like but as a rough starting point try 2 parts gin, 1 part syrup and 2-3 parts soda water (we use a soda stream).

This is what a decent gin and tonic looks like. Can't wait to have one by the lake!