tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

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Gin McGuinness
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by Gin McGuinness »

sorry love, I retract my claws. Try different tonics. I've done this before searching for the right tonic to go with the right gin. Never buy the diet kind because they are sweeter than the original. I've also mixed 1/2 & 1/2 club soda & tonic to keep the bitter quinine taste without diluting the signature flavour. best of luck in your adventure.
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captain gonzo
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by captain gonzo »

Your right about the sugar free stuff....thats what most pubs sell around here cos usualy women drink it and most of them are always on diets (because you know, gin won't help you put on weight, just the tonic). Its like drinking some alcoholic chemical broth, I hate artificial sweeteners.
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by Kindred »

0x1A8 wrote:of course it's important. it's about booze.

do any of you drunkards know if you can get unsweetened tonic water. not sugar free, but with NO sweetener - no sugar, and saccharine, no aspartame, nothin'.

I love gin and tonic, but after three or four, I feel like I'm drinking sugar water. It gets vile, and what I'd like is to get good tonic water with no sweetener, and then if I find it too bitter, add some syrup or something.

I've asked at the liquor store, the bar, the google (heh), no luck. But they all said 'I don't know', not 'No. There is no such thing.', so I ask you, the people I should have asked first, you true connoisseurs of corn liquor, you heroes of hooch, you wizards of whiskey - Is there such a thing as unsweetened tonic water, and if so, what is the brand name, or from where can i order it?

I thank you.

I have been told soda water works well. Of course it just makes the gin taste like watered down bubbly gin but some people find it refreshing.

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peetie44
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by peetie44 »

Kindred wrote:
0x1A8 wrote: Is there such a thing as unsweetened tonic water, and if so, what is the brand name, or from where can i order it?

I thank you.

I have been told soda water works well. Of course it just makes the gin taste like watered down bubbly gin but some people find it refreshing.
Problem with soda water is, it lacks quinine, which is what tonic water originally was -- quinine ("tonic") + sugar + soda water.

British army officers mixed their homemade "tonic water" with gin, back in the late 19th century, while serving in the Far East, as they thought it would protect them from malaria.

Today's tonic water contains very little quinine. There IS "diet" tonic water available. It goes good with "diet" gin, or so I'm told.
Last edited by peetie44 on Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by 5-Star »

I have been told soda water works well. Of course it just makes the gin taste like watered down bubbly gin but some people find it refreshing.
Gin with soda water and a ton of lime is a good summer drink, it's called a Gin Rickey. You can make a good drink by making concentrate limeade but using gin in place of water for a couple of the canfulls, toss some tonic in and you are in lawn mowing heaven.

Another way to get your tonic content is to mix dubonnet and gin 50/50, it's kind of froofy but it uses an alcoholic mixer so I am in favour of it.

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last_real_family_man
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by last_real_family_man »

As a devoted student of the G&T, I have done a bit of research on the subject. It turns out that making your own tonic (sweetened to your liking with the sweetener of your choice) is fairly straightforward and cheap, if not terribly messy and labor-intensive. I have not tried it. There are also several "top shelf" tonics just entering the market, all sweetened with some kind of natural sweetener, all much less sweet than the high-fructose-corn-syrup concoction we are all used to. They cost as much as gin, though, and the family man is too cheap to try them. I just use Schwepp's from a tiny GLASS bottle very judiciously.
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Re: tonic water question sounds odd, but it's important

Post by WineGoddess »

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