Welcome, RTD Cocktail Club Members, to our fourth installment! Twice a month we will be featuring a classic cocktail, sharing the story behind it, and bottling it along with three interesting variations for you to try and enjoy at home. This week, we take a look at the Gin & Tonic.
History
The Fever Tree
Here we go with some more drunk history - lots of stories, lots of holes in stories. The Gin and Tonic history centers around tonic which centers around a South American Tree bark that was used as an effective anti-malarial medicine exploited by Europeans in the 1700’s after being introduced to it by the Quechua people of Western South America. Cinchona is a genus of flowering tree native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. Great! A cure for a horrible illness! Right? Not exactly, as this was the only known cure for an infectious disease during the height of British Colonialism. This led to Europe’s conquest of the tropics, Asia, and Africa in search of this medicine to import. This colonialist mentality nearly wiped out the cinchona tree species as well as many other things.
Spanish colonialists in 17th century Peru found this treatment for malaria in the Quinquina tree. And by that I mean the Quechua peoples had long understood the healing properties of cinchona bark, so when the countess from Cinchona fell ill with malaria, this treatment was wisely administered and saved her. Carolus Linnaeus, a botanist and “father of taxonomy,” classified the Quinquina tree in the genus Cinchona in honor of the Countess, further adding to the confusion of Cinchona, quinquina, kina kina, and china china.
By the early 1800s, this was a widespread medication effective for preventing malaria and was therefore highly sought after. If you weren’t dying from malaria, you could keep control of an area and take over other territories, especially if you have a cure and the indigenous people of that country don’t. This concoction was integral to The British Empire’s power.
The quinine tonic was very bitter, so it was sometimes sweetened with sugar and diluted. However, water wasn’t reliably clean or potable at that time. The other liquid ration of the time was gin, and by 1825, British officers were adding gin from their navy strength rations and calling it Indian Tonic Water. By the late 1850s, Britain was in control of India and the need for quinine to combat malaria among the soldiers and their families was incredibly high, leading to the ubiquitous presence of the gin and tonic.
What started as a medicine however, worked. A squeeze of lime (originally provided to prevent scurvy) in a cocktail framework works as an acid; acid, gin, bitter, sweet, and dilution sounds like a perfectly balanced cocktail to me. And so here we have it. 2020 with a…. much lower risk of malaria, yet gin and tonics are all the rage.
INGREDIENTS & EXTRAS
FLAVOR GLOSSARY:
Elderflower - The flower from the elderberry bush originally used medicinally and for flavoring. Floral, musky, and sweet.
Saffron - Crimson stigma from the crocus sativus flower. The world's most expensive spice by weight, it is often used as a coloring agent. Earthy, complex, and floral.
Bergamot - An orange citrus that is probably a hybrid of a lemon and a seville, or bitter orange. Oils are extracted from the peel and are used as a flavoring and in perfumes.
Quinine - Bitter extract from the bark of certain species of the Cinchona tree.
Bonal - French fortified wine with both gentian and quinine; first produced in 1865.
Lazzaroni Ferro China - An Italian tonic first made with cinchona bark and iron citrate, an iron based salt made from citric acid and iron sulfate. Herbal, mocha, spice.
Jack Rudy Extra Bitter Tonic - A tonic syrup made in South Carolina with water, cane sugar, quinine, citric acid, lemongrass, and orange peel
Recipes
CLASSIC:
1.5 Bimini Gin
.5 Salers Gentian Liqueur
.5 oz Bitter Orange Peel Syrup
8 d Saffron Bitters
4 d Lemon
Combine ingredients in a chilled glass over ice. Top with club soda & garnish with a lime wedge.
VARIATIONS:
Coconut
1.5 oz Bimini Coconut
.25 oz honey syrup
1 drop Bergamot Oil
5 drops Elderflower Tincture
3.5 oz carbonated Gunpowder
Green Tea
Combine gin, honey, bergamot, and elderflower tincture in a glass with ice. Top with carbonated tea & garnish with a lime wedge.
Overproof
1.25 oz Bimini Overproof
.25 oz Lazzaroni Ferro China
.75 oz Jack Rudy Extra Bitter
Tonic Syrup
3 drops Angostura Bitters
Combine ingredients in a chilled glass over ice. Top with club soda & garnish with a lime wedge.
Barrel Reserve
.75 oz Bimini Barrel Reserve No. 1
.75 oz Bonal
.25 oz lime juice
.125 oz Five Spice Syrup
5 drops acid phosphate
5 drops Fernet Branca
Combine ingredients in a chilled glass over ice. Top with club soda & garnish with a lime wedge.
How to Make It
First things first, mis en place - get your tools together. Gather a jigger, a bar spoon, ice scoop, and the serving glass. Collect all of your ingredients.
Next, fill your serving glass with ice and, using your bar spoon, spin the ice to chill the glass. Discard any melted water.
Add your gin and any other bitters, syrups, or juices.
Gently pour your sparkling water into the glass. Try to use the side of the glass to minimize loos of carbonation. You can also use the stem of your bar spoon to guide the liquid.
Gently stir the cocktail with your bar spoon for 5-10 seconds until the ingredients are incorporated.
Garnish with a wedge of lime squeezed over the top.
Imbibe! Don’t let it get watery!
PRO TIPS:
Gently stir your ice in your glass, discard the melted water, and then add your ingredients. Only do this if your tonic is already cold.
Buy the Good Tonic Water.
Use your favorite green herbs for garnish - cilantro, basil, rosemary, sage. Don’t muddle, preserve the oils for aromatics.
Freeze juice (lemon, grapefruit, lime) and Italian aperitivo into ice cubes to use in your gin and tonic.
Learn how to make your own DIY carbonation system!
TOOLS AND TOOL SUBSTITUTIONS:
Collins or double rocks glass
Really any glass will suffice; opt for straight sides
Spoon- Cocktail Spoon (they have longer shafts which is better, I swear)
Gary Regan used his finger, a chopstick, a kebab skewer - just something skinny to spin the ice
Cocktail Jigger
Coffee scoop, shot glass, measuring cups or spoons (1 tablespoon equals 1/2oz, 1/4 cup equals 2oz)
Ice scoop or Ice tongs
Measuring cup, serving spoon
“SPOON IN A BOTTLE OF BUBBLES THEORY”
As in how, theoretically, a cold metal spoon placed inside of a bottle could help preserve the effervescence. Think of the heat conductivity of metal - it’s high. Think of forgetting a metal spoon in a pot of food you are cooking and going to grab it versus a wooden spoon. If the spoon is in a bottle of bubbles (in this situation we are talking about when you buy the good tonic and don’t want to waste it) it will become colder faster because ~metal~ The spoon getting cold faster could create an airlock at the neck of the bottle which would reduce the bubbles escaping. Not to mention that cold things move more slowly, so by chilling you are also reducing the kinetic energy that the molecules have to escape with. If you’re in a pinch it is worth a try, but Mythbusters has definitely tried to disprove it even though theoretically, it's pretty cool. Get it, COOL?
