A few years ago, Christopher and I had a conversation about gin with an American bartender. He prided himself on the many varieties he had. So we asked: which tonics do you stock? Cue confusion. ‘Schweppes draft. Are there others?’
The candidates: own label, mainstream and something a little special.
The number of gins on the market has exploded over the last few years. Artisan gin distilleries are popping up everywhere. It’s s very exciting time for gin lovers.
If you like a G&T, it’s even more exciting now that the tonic options have increased. We’ve been drinking Fever Tree for years, preferring it to the open brand or main brand options. Then Fentimans released a tonic. Happy days! It’s not easy to get hold of where I live, but I see it in pubs and bars*. Smaller producers, like Bon Accord, also make tonic, and recently, Franklin & Sons turned up in my supermarket.
I went out to my local supermarkets to see which tonics I could get hold of: time for a tasting.
Caroline and Christopher tastes tonic
Our favourite, and not included here, is Fever Tree. It has a great dose of quinine but isn’t so sweet, or so floral, that it overpowers the gin. It is a lovely drink on its own and is blissful mixed with grapefruit-juice. It works with coffee, with gins and vodkas. It’s our golden standard.
The gin is Electric Spirit Co’s Achroous, a glorious old-style, full-on-juniper gin. Electric Spirit Co gin is sippable but tonic takes the medicinal edge off. To give the tonic a chance to show off, I mixed 1 part gin to 9 parts tonic, with ice and no garnishes. We’re rating the tonics as follows: * meh ** fine *** great.
Electric Spirit Co Achroous: a bright and shining juniper light. Seriously small batch; seriously interesting.
Own brand
- Morrison Indian Tonic: Sweet, lacking bitterness. Overly fizzy. Doesn’t add anything to the tonic: a dilutant. Rating: *
- Sainsbury Indian Tonic: Sweet and with hardly any quinine. Hint of vanilla on the nose? Does affect the gin, making it mellow and making the flavour. Rating: *
Mainstream
- Schweppes Indian Tonic: Has good quinine flavour, not overly sweet. Compliments the gin instead of making it. Makes the drink taste like a classic G&T. Rating: **
A little special
- Franklin & Sons (naturall light): Smells like stale lemonade and is a little too sweet. Fizzes as if it’s been nitro-ed (which I like but Christopher doesn’t). Citrussy and sharp. Doesn’t stand up to the gin, becomes nothing but a faintly odd bitterness. It’ll be interesting to see if the full fat is more satisfying. Rating: *
- Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic: Floral and herbaceous on the nose, very pleasant on its own, if different from a classic tonic. The floral notes survive the gin, making a rounder, complex but pleasant G&T. Rating: ***
Tasting in progress. A1 and B1. (I knew what we were drinking, Christopher didn’t. (Thus we minimize bias. Hopefully.)
Conclusions
Fever Tree is still our favourite, their Mediterranean is a lovely change of pace. Schweppes is a fair default. The other three really need the gin to be drinkable. Since we drink tonic like a teenager drinks cola, that’s not good enough.
Part of me is still sure there’s a best ever tonic out there that I haven’t tasted yet. Oskar Lindberg has a tonic recipe in his book Cocktail Cookbook. I’m itching to try it.
What’s your favourite?
* I like Fentimans on its own, as a soda: it’s too flowery to mix. The first time I had it with tonic I sent the drink back because I thought they’d forgotten to add the tonic. Bet Electric Spirit Co’s gin could stand up to it, though.
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