Spiced Tonic Water Recipe
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Tasting the homemade version of tonic water at Portland, Oregon’s Teardrop Cocktail Lounge changed our whole perspective on the mixer. There, owner Daniel Shoemaker makes it spiced with Sichuan peppercorns and cardamom, then bottles and carbonates it with champagne yeast. He kindly shared his recipe, which we’ve adapted into a tonic syrup for the home cook—just add carbonated water, then drink it on its own as a dry, sophisticated soda, or mix it with some gin for a gin and tonic unlike any you’ve tasted.
What to buy: Cinchona bark, a.k.a. quinine bark, is what gives tonic water its characteristic bitter flavor. It’s a dark reddish-brown, so don’t be thrown off when this recipe gives you orange-ish tonic water instead of the clear stuff you’re used to. You can order quinine bark powder online from ZooScape.com.
This recipe was featured as part of our DIY Holiday Gifts Advent Calendar.
For the syrup:
- 2 1/4 teaspoons cinchona bark powder, also known as quinine bark powder
- 4 1/2 teaspoons 100-proof vodka
- 2 cups agave nectar
- 2 1/2 cups distilled water
- 1/4 cup dried orange peel
- 1/3 cup juniper berries
- 1/4 cup Sichuan peppercorns
- 2 tablespoons cardamom pods
- 3 3/4 teaspoons citric acid
- Zest and juice from 5 1/2 limes
For the tonic water:
- Carbonated water
- Combine cinchona bark powder and vodka in a container with a tightfitting lid; cover and let sit overnight.
- Combine cinchona-vodka mixture and remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan, cover, and bring to a simmer (be careful—the vodka is flammable). Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit overnight at room temperature.
- Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a container with a spout. Transfer syrup to a container with a tightfitting lid and refrigerate for up to 2 months.
For the tonic water:
- Combine 1 part syrup with 6 parts carbonated water. Serve immediately.
I frequent Teardrop withsome regularity and plan on trying this at home. Sure it's not the cheapest recipe, but I wouldn't cook/brew half the things I do if it was all about the money.
As for Morgenthaler, he's also a talented bartender and I've tried his ginger beer recipe at home. The thing is, he's got a different style than the boys at Teardrop and the comparison could be interesting.
The champagne yeast will digest the sugar and create alcohol and CO2. So you could create your syrup, add distilled water, mix and inoculate the bottle with a small portion of bloomed champagne yeast. Allow a couple days for fermentation and bingo. Carbonated bevy.
I just did my own ginger beer using the same method. Works great. I used the Chow ginger beer recipe the first time, but substituted american ale yeast instead of creating a wild bug:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10683-cho...
2nd time I went bigger scale and did a carboy of ginger beer with a little add of ginger, allspice, star anise and limes. Had to switch to using the champagne yeast, as the limes acidity seemed not to work with the ale yeast but worked fine with the champagne yeast.
I would also like to know about the carbonation with champagne yeast instead of the carbonated water.
The taste of homemade tonic water is infinitely superior to that of typical store-bought stuff. And while this recipe uses quite a few of spendy ingredients for a fairly small yield, most others cost a tiny fraction of what you'd pay for Schweppes. Check out the Morgenthaler recipe linked below.
Can you post how to carbonate it with the champagne yeast? thanks.
For anyone worried about the vodka in this recipe, the syrup comes out to 1% ABV(Alcohol by Volume) and the final tonic water to about .15% ABV, so it's totally safe for kids and those that choose to abstain from alcohol.
Put a different way, about 3 gallons of the stuff has the same alcohol content as a can of beer.
Amen Larikatz...Mrs. Murphy's son was born on a Tuesday, but not last Tuesday
I've been using Jeffrey Morgenthaller's recipe for about a year now, trying all sorts of variants, such as including rose petals, a bit of cinnamon, etc.
The easiest way I've found to Morgenthaller's recipe is to do a cold acidic extraction of the cinchona overnight (just use the citric acid that's part of the ingredient list to that). Filtering is a lot easier when most of the "mud" has settled over the course of a night in the fridge!
I use a low sodium soda water to mix up my drinks.
Can you post the original recipe, complete with the champagne yeast for self-carbonation? I've been looking for some guidance on this type of process for some time now...
Might taste great, but for the price...? No way.
Check out Jeffrey Morgenthaller's blog for another tonic recipe. Jeffrey is the head bartender of another of Portland's wonderful cocktail bars, Clyde Common.
http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/20...