Tonic is having a moment. Once, Schweppes was the only sensible option for your evening G&T, but we are now in the middle of a bubble boom.
Recently, sitting at the gin bar at the Holborn Dining Room, we were faced with 28 different tonic water brands listed in the gin menu, from Merchant’s Heart Floral Aromatics to Fever-Tree Elderflower and Franklin & Sons Lemon.
The original tonics emerged in the early 19th century, when water and sugar were mixed with cinchona bark as a deterrent against the malaria parasite. But when gin was added and the cinchona, otherwise known as quinine, softened, the G&T became a liquid linchpin on bar menus. Today, thanks to an interest in high-quality spirits (in...