We are always asked which tonic water goes best with Gin Eva. Last year we held a tonic tasting to get to the bottom of this and you can read the result here. Despite our search, we have not yet found the perfect tonic water. We would prefer an unflavored tonic that brings out the flavors of the gin in the G&T.

In addition to comercial tonic waters, there are numerous tonic syrups, but almost all of them have a reddish color due to the cinchona bark. Also in many cases, the G&T foams too much and there is not enough carbon dioxide in the drink, in case the syrups are acidified with fresh lemon or lime juice. That’s why we developed a recipe for a crystal-clear tonic syrup.

Since we wanted a crystal-clear result, we decolorized the cinchona bark extract with activated charcoal and then filtered it through a coffee filter. However, some of the bitterness is also lost in the process, which is why we have supplemented our recipe with a good amount of cinchona bark.

First we boiled 20g of bark in 150ml of water for 5 minutes. Then we stirred in half a teaspoon of activated charcoal and filtered the infusion through a coffee filter to clarify it. At the same time, we made a sugar syrup from 300g of sugar and 250ml of water, along with two sticks of lemongrass. As soon as the sugar had dissolved, we took the syrup off the stove and added 10g of citric acid.

Finally, we poured the sugar syrup and the quinine batch together and bottled it. The recipe yields just over half a liter of crystal-clear tonic syrup that will keep in the fridge for a few weeks.

If you want to mix the perfect crystal-clear G&T now, you only need 5 cl Gin Eva, 5 cl syrup and 20 cl sparkling water – try it out. Cheers!