Inspired by an old Alcademics post and some recent warm weather, I set about perfecting a recipe for a gin and tonic that uses fresh cinchona bark and fruit juice, rather than tonic water.
Gin and Tonic
- 1/8 tsp finely powdered cinchona bark
- 1 1/2 dry gin (Beefeater, Junipero recommended)
Mix these two and wait at least 2 minutes, but not more than 5.
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 simple syrup
- 1 dash Angostura bitters (optional)
Stir, add ice and top with soda water ~4 oz
These “brown g and t’s” are actually quite refreshing. The taste is different than, say, Schweppes and there’s a barky character that I quite like. Feel free to up the citrus or reduce the syrup, especially when using different gins, I find there’s a bit of leeway there.
The cinchona powder? Well, I picked mine up in person at Tenzing Momo in Seattle, but other health food stores/natural medicine outlets do carry it, on and offline.
Further reading:
http://www.alcademics.com/2008/09/homemade-tonic-actually-easy.html
Cinchona (pronounced ’sin-koh-na’) is also known as Jesuit’s bark and quinine bark among other names.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinchona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuit’s_bark
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/usdisp/cinchona.html