Drinks

Gin & Tonic

July 29, 2022 by Jennifer 2 Comments

I was going back through all my cocktail posts and I realized I’d never done the infamous G&T. You’re probably wondering why? I mean, I’ve got all the classics here. The Martini, the Manhattan, Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Margarita and the Mai Tai… and that’s just the M’s! If it’s got liquor and was made before 1960, odds are the recipe and its history are on this blog. So, why not the Gin & Tonic? It’s one of the most classic recipes out there. And it’s so easy to make. It’s literally only two or three ingredients. Well, there’s a simple explanation: I hate tonic water!

As you may have noticed, I don’t do a lot of cocktails with bitter flavors. There are only seven cocktails with Campari, a very bitter aperitivo, and not a one with tonic. The bitterness they all have just doesn’t appetize me. I hate it. I’ve tried numerous times and I just can’t get past that bitterness. So, I’ve avoided them. For years. But then I tried Aperol and discovered that if the bitterness was less or better yet hidden by other flavors, it wasn’t bad. As a matter of fact, it was quite nice. That subtle bitterness added a depth to the cocktail that made it more interesting and delightful.

After my foray into Aperol, I went to dinner with some friends at a local gin bar. On their menu was a whole section devoted to Gin & Tonics. I didn’t know what to do. They all sounded delightful, save for the tonic part. So, I ordered a martini. The waiter was surprised. “We’re known for our G&T’s, you know.” “I know, but I hate tonic,” I told her. She smiled. She told me they used Fever Tree’s flavored tonics, so the G&T’s weren’t as harsh. She recommended their Beach Cruiser and promised if I didn’t like it, she’d bring me my martini, no charge. Well, if you know Los Angeles, you know getting a free cocktail is hard to come by. So, I figured why not? I mean, worst case scenario, I’d have a sip of the G&T, hate it and get a delicious Dirty Martini. It wasn’t a hard decision. She brought me this beautiful cocktail and as my girlfriends watched, I took a sip. Then I took another. And another. The drink was delicious! Sure there was a bitterness, but much like the Aperol, it wasn’t all consuming. It was tempered by the sweet elderflower. I absolutely loved it! And the best news was, if I loved this G&T, odds were I’d like others… as long as flavored tonics were used.

So, I had a new mission: to try all of Fever Tree’s tonics. There are several. Sure, they have your basic tonic, but there’s also cucumber, citrus, Premium Indian, Mediterranean, and my favorite, the Elderflower. I ran to Total Wine and More and bought them all. They were all delicious. They all had the classic quinine bitterness that comes with tonic water, but then they have the delightful flavors which temper it.

That quinine bitterness is actually how G&T’s came to be. See, in the late 1700’s a Scottish doctor by the name of George Cleghorn discovered that quinine could be used to treat malaria. Then in the 1800’s when British soldiers were stationed in India, they started drinking gin with tonic daily to avoid malaria since quinine is one of the main ingredients in tonic water. Winston Churchill even noted that “The Gin and Tonic… has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.” Of course the Gin and Tonic became super popular and like every classic cocktail, as the years passed the recipe changed. In the early 20th century when cocktails were more about the alcohol than the mixer, the Gin & Tonic went from tonic with a splash of gin to two or three ounces of gin with just a splash of tonic. And the lime juice? That splash was added for both flavor and additional health benefits.

So, while the Gin & Tonic may have started as a way to ward off malaria, it’s turned into one of the most popular gin drinks out there. And whether you prefer it with straight tonic and a splash of gin or all gin with a couple splashes of flavored tonic, it’s definitely a cocktail that’s perfect for summer. I mean, with just two or three ingredients, you can enjoy this drink anywhere from your backyard to the beach to the mountaintop. So, where will you be sipping your next G&T?