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Distilling Tonic Water Syrup

edited February 2016 in General

In my quest for Gin and its distillation, I did a search this morning on Tonic Waters and was amazed at the variety e.g. Elderflower, Ginger, dry etc.

In essence syrups need to be blended with sugars, water and carbonated to create a tonic water.

Now to get to these essences and their flavourings, I would imagine that some form of distillation is required. ... maceration or vapour methods.

Ideas here ??

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Comments

  • edited February 2016

    hi @richard

    have a read of this article on making tonic water - it has a good simple recipe and compares (subjectively) it to commercial and another DIY recipe.

    Recipe: Simple Homemade Tonic Water – and 5 commercial brands compared @ Craft Cocktails at Home

    As you will read - no distillation is necessary simply heat and steep.

    There are plenty of other recipes out there which all add to the basic water, sugar chinchona, acid mix eg adding citrus peel, spices and lemon grass such as

    Homemade Tonic Water @ david lebovitz

    So use these as a basis and start experimenting

    Two things to note are:

    1. your diy efforts won't be clear like Schweppes ;)
    2. I suspect that a lot of the "tonics" you are seeing online are more like traditional home made remedies to assist minor ailments rather than mixers for the cocktail bar.

    if you do come across a recipe for something like Schweppes dry ginger ale please let me know (nb not home made ginger beer I want to something like used in Canadian Club & dry).

  • Wife makes fermented ginger beer...and conditions/self carbonates in the bottle. I water it and use as a mixer.

    Right, it isn't clear

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • edited February 2016

    It's getting interesting as to what you can do.

    Interesting reading for; Kinatonic syrup, John's premium tonic and others.

    Also a "shot left" for serving a G&T on a hot day as seen in the picture with the ice lolly.

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  • edited February 2016

    I got somewhere and here are the threads; .... read them in order

    1. How to Make Your Own Tonic Water @ Jeffrey Morgenthaler
    2. Quassia Tonic Syrup Recipe @ Dunawi Creek
    3. Cinchona vs. Quassia Tonic Syrup @ Dunawi Creek

    Am going to be busy this weekend %-(

  • edited February 2016

    Condensed recipe

    4 cups water
    1 cup chopped lemongrass (roughly one large stalk)
    1/4 cup powdered cinchona bark
    zest and juice of 1 orange
    zest and juice of 1 lemon
    zest and juice of 1 lime
    1 tsp whole allspice berries
    1/4 cup citric acid
    1/4 tsp Kosher salt
    

    Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

    Remove from heat and strain out solids using a strainer or chinois. You’ll need to fine-strain the mixture, as it still contains quite a bit of the cinchona bark. You can use a coffee filter and wait for an hour or more, or do as I do and run the whole mixture through a French coffee press.

    Once you’re satisfied with the clarity of your mix, heat it back up on the stove top or microwave, and then add ¾ cup of agave syrup to each cup of your hot mix. Stir until combined, and store in the attractive bottle of your choice.

    You now have a syrup that you can carbonate with seltzer water; I use my iSi soda siphon for some nicely-textured bubbles. To assemble a gin and tonic, use ¾ ounce of syrup, 1½ ounces of gin and 2 ounces of soda water over ice.

    Who's going to try it. ??

  • edited February 2016

    I always thought of tonic water as the salts and chemicals in the water? I may be thinking of soda water though.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited February 2016

    I believe that the original tonic was a quinine solution taken to prevent/treat malaria, in the British colonies. Brits being Brits civilized the practice by adding a healthy dollop of gin to their medicine.

    One of the breakout sessions at this year's ADI conference is titled, The Mystics of Tonic Making

    Presenters:
    Natashe Bahrami, Owner, The Gin Room
    David T. Smith, Summerfruitcup.com

    Synopsis:
    Whether you love gin or vodka with your tonic or just straight up goodness of the nectar, learn the history of the tonic,how to pair with spirits and to concoct your very own. Attendees will learn strategic G & T pairings, understand the pleasurable and health benefits of tonic and leave with the skills to make homemade tonic.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited February 2016

    Condensed recipe

    4 cups water
    1 cup chopped lemongrass (roughly one large stalk)
    1/4 cup powdered cinchona bark
    zest and juice of 1 orange
    zest and juice of 1 lemon
    zest and juice of 1 lime
    1 tsp whole allspice berries
    1/4 cup citric acid
    1/4 tsp Kosher salt
    

    Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

    Remove from heat and strain out solids using a strainer or chinois. You’ll need to fine-strain the mixture, as it still contains quite a bit of the cinchona bark. You can use a coffee filter and wait for an hour or more, or do as I do and run the whole mixture through a French coffee press.

    Once you’re satisfied with the clarity of your mix, heat it back up on the stove top or microwave, and then add ¾ cup of agave syrup to each cup of your hot mix. Stir until combined, and store in the attractive bottle of your choice.

    You now have a syrup that you can carbonate with seltzer water; I use my iSi soda siphon for some nicely-textured bubbles. To assemble a gin and tonic, use ¾ ounce of syrup, 1½ ounces of gin and 2 ounces of soda water over ice.

    Who's going to try it. ??

  • I bought some CINCHONI bark today...... Holy sherbert but its more expensive than Gold.

    I only wanted 1 kg. They only sell it in 50kg bags. However he said he will make a special and only sell 5Kg.

    Price per kg is US $ 35. Wow this is unreal.

  • You won't like the price of hops then. :D

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • amazon is double that, $33/lb....

  • I suppose then I have learned a valuable lesson in that it was a desperate hard find for me to source a regional supplier whom incidently has a serious amount on hand and also that I must then not look a gift horse in the mouth.

    In any case I now have a serious bee in the bonnet.

  • @Kapea said: I believe that the original tonic was a quinine solution taken to prevent/treat malaria, in the British colonies. Brits being Brits civilized the practice by adding a healthy dollop of gin to their medicine.

    One of the breakout sessions at this year's ADI conference is titled, The Mystics of Tonic Making

    Presenters:
    Natashe Bahrami, Owner, The Gin Room
    David T. Smith, Summerfruitcup.com

    Synopsis:
    Whether you love gin or vodka with your tonic or just straight up goodness of the nectar, learn the history of the tonic,how to pair with spirits and to concoct your very own. Attendees will learn strategic G & T pairings, understand the pleasurable and health benefits of tonic and leave with the skills to make homemade tonic.

    Hell I wish I could be there unfortunately I do not believe it to be possible. None the less would it be possible to get a transcript of their presentation.

  • The quinine gives the bitter flavour - quinine comes from the bark of the cinchona tree

    Schweppes Tonic Water now only has a tiny amount of quinine - enough for them to still call it Tonic Water - they probably add other bittering agents to make up for the loss of quinine

    The Gin was probably used as mixer because 1/ the original drink was too bitter 2/ every other reason we add alcohol to drinks x2 for the tropical weather

  • There was a Hairy Bikies episode on yesterday where they went into the history and makeup of both Gin and Tonic

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited February 2016

    So according to Hairy Bikies, was my history lesson right, or was it just urban legend?

    Got the malaria/G&T story told to me many years ago by my dad. Sometimes he was top dead center true. Other times he was as full of shit as a Christmas turkey. (I've been told the apple doesn't fall far from the tree)

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • According to Dave and Si you were spot on. They even ground up some bark and mixed it with water and had a tiny sip. Entirely unpalatable apparently, and the tonic guy said that the expression a spoonfull of sugar to help the medicine came from this very drink.

    Found it;

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q49975VkoM

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Cool video.

    So, if I am catching the inference correctly; Mary Poppins was a lady of the night?

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Watched the Hairy Bikers .... Great.

    What was most interesting and it also is in a number of recipes and that is the part of the Cinchona bark preparation.

    Here in some they say ...... Use "powdered" Cinchona bark.

    Cinchona is the source of Quinine. I refer to this because in the powdered form, they say it's quite easy to overdose on Quinine......The trouble is that some people are extremely sensitive to quinine’s toxic effects. This drug can cause headache, rash, ringing in the ears, nausea, dizziness and blurred vision.

    I can just imagine trying to do tonic syrup on a commercial basis and the above happens.

    The other problem in the powdered form is that it results in a cloudy solution and needs to be extra filtered.

    Okay so I have (as of Monday) 5kg of Cinchona bark. Hell what have I got myself into. I am going to first use it by coarse grinding and try from there.

  • At 3:04 you can see what looks to be a 2" drain-back tube... whose size was questioned on another thread..

  • edited February 2016

    I think that's for pumping into the still. Wrong side for the drain.

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  • I dunno... yeah it is on the one side, but this one with the tube coming in from the other side looks the same diameter..

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  • Please excuse my ignorance .... what's the bulbous job on top of the kettle and further what purpose does it serve.

  • edited February 2016

    @CothermanDistilling said: At 3:04 you can see what looks to be a 2" drain-back tube... whose size was questioned on another thread..

    Yes precisely. No need to limit the plates ability to run at steady state.

    And I reckon that drain back tube turns downward below the liquid level line too.

    No need to pump that far downward to charge the kettle. Need to see a few in person.

    No worries. Discussion is good!

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Ah yes I see. Looks like they do not compromise the jacket and may pump from a similar tube.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited February 2016

    @richard said: Please excuse my ignorance .... what's the bulbous job on top of the kettle and further what purpose does it serve.

    The head? IIRC, the head causes a sudden drop in pressure as the steam goes up, condensing some of it.

  • Would imagine surface area and possibly turbulence would outweigh pressure drop as impact, which btw would be small.

  • Ah, fair point. Only have a vague notion on the effects of head design.

  • What's the benefit over a deplhleg?

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