Freshly Made Tonic Water Recipe

Freshly Made Tonic Water Recipe

After a few attempts at making tonic water at home, I like this version the best. 

It’s not too sweet and uses fresh stevia leaves which could be changed out with stevia liquid or dried leaves, it has plenty of citrus flavour and enough cinchona flavour (the plant responsible for that recognisable quinine taste).

You can easily swap around the herbs and spices for those that you prefer.

As this is a concentrated recipe, you can dilute it to your taste liking with sparkling water or still water if you prefer.

This recipe makes about 700 millilitres (a little over a pint) and will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

 

Ingredients
  • 4g cinchona bark
  • 4g citric acid
  • 4g lemon zest (approx. 1 medium lemon)
  • 75ml lemon juice (I used a medium meyer lemon which are very juicy)
  • 3g lime zest (approx. 1 medium lime)
  • 30 ml lime juice (approx. 1 medium lime)
  • 8g lemon grass, fresh and chopped roughly
  • 1g fennel seeds
  • 1g allspice berries
  • 1 x clove
  • 3g stevia leaves, fresh (approx. 8 x medium sized leaves)
  • 1/4 teaspoon pink salt
  • 1g lemon verbena, fresh, (approx. 10cm or 4in sprig)
  • 700ml water

 

Method
  1. Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a simmer.
  2. Simmer for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
  3. Strain, bottle and refrigerate.

 

Gin & Tonic

Depending on your flavour preference and how strong you like your G&T, you can adjust the amount of sparkling soda water and gin to suit yourself.

70ml of tonic water combined with 35ml of gin and approximately 200-250ml of soda water, served over  ice and with a slice of fresh lemon in a tall glass.