Tonic water: sweet, bitter medicine

Art Culinaire, Summer, 2008

Greg Best
GIN AND HOMEMADE TONIC

For the tonic:
1 gallon filtered water
3 tablespoons powdered cinchona bark *
3/4 ounce crystallized citric acid
8-10 dashes Reagan's orange bitters
1/2 cup simple syrup or agave nectar, plus more to taste

For the cocktail:
2 ounces gin, preferably Miller's or Hendrick's
3 ounces tonic water, from above

For the garnish:
Lemon twist

* Available through Raintree Nutrition, (800) 780-5902 or
www.rain-tree.com

For the tonic: In large pot combine water and cinchona powder, and
bring to boil. Strain through Buchner funnel to remove as much brown
color as possible. [Note: it is acceptable to strain through
fine-mesh sieve lined with paper filter, but the liquid will remain
brown] Using mortar and pestle, crush citric acid to fine powder.
Add to liquid and stir about three minutes to incorporate. Add
bitters and simple syrup or agave nectar. Adjust sweetness to taste.
Place mixture in soda siphon and charge with cartridge of C02.
Refrigerate until needed.

For the cocktail: In shaker filled with ice, combine gin and tonic.
Shake and strain into Collins glass filled with large ice cubes.
Garnish with lemon twist.

Jerry Slater
TONIC WATER

For the tonic water base:
24 ounces sugar cane juice*
12 ounces water
6 whole star anise
6 white peppercorns
6 black peppercorns
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon cinchona powder
1 teaspoon citric acid
1 teaspoon gray sea salt

For the tonic water:
6 ounces tonic water base
24 ounces water, chilled

* Fresh juice is preferred; Goya[R] offers a bottled version.

For the tonic water base: In medium saucepan over medium heat,
combine sugar cone juice and water. Meanwhile, in saute pan over
high heat, toast star anise and white and black peppercorns. Bring
syrup mixture to boil, then pour over spices in saute pan. Remove
from heat. Stir in zests, juices, cinchona powder, citric acid and
salt. Cover and steep 30 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth-lined
fine-mesh sleve. Let cool.

For the tonic water:
Combine tonic water base and water. Place in soda siphon and charge
with one cartridge CO2.

Political Potable

The history of tonic water begins in 17th, century Peru when Spanish colonists discovered a treatment for malaria in the bark of the quinaquina tree. One account insists that the Countess of Chinchon, the Peruvian viceroy’s wife, took the bark to Spain around 1640 after it saved her from malaria. Another proposes that a Jesuit missionary named Barnabe de Cobo made the first trans-Atlantic delivery in 1632. Whichever the case may be, the ground bark became known as both “Countess’s powder” and “Jesuit’s powder” throughout Europe. In the 18th century Carolus Linnaeus chose to classify the quinaquina tree as genus “cinchona” in honor of the legendary lady.

In 1817 French scientists Pelletier and Caventou found a method for extracting the bark’s most medically powerful compound, quinine. They quickly established a factory to produce it, and sold the drug as a means of preventing malaria. As early as 1825 British officers in India devised a way to make their bitter, daily dose more pleasurable