How to Make Tonic Water, and Why You Probably Shouldn't
Added 2023-09-29 16:07:14 +0000 UTCTonic water has a long history, first as a medicine to fight malaria, but it morphed into a popular cocktail when mixed with gin, hence the Gin & Tonic. Many people have asked me about making their own tonic water, and it can be done, but some important issues need to be discussed before you embark on your homemade tonic water recipe. Specifically, the main flavour-providing compound, quinine, can interact with many drugs and there are legal limits on how much quinine can go into tonic water (83 mg/L) so to formulate your own tonic, you need to factor these into your recipe.
Below is a recipe from a century ago the quinine level was 137 mg/L then and today for beverages, the limit is set at 83 mg/L in North America, your location may vary. But, the quinine flavour is quite obvious at even lower levels so and excess of quinine serves no benefit.
The most common reason for wanting to make homemade tonic water is that most commercial products tend to be on the sweet side, so making your own would allow you to control the sugar levels.
If you have questions, please let me know.
Comments
The thing that will extract the most tannins is using ultrasound. If you let the mixture extract for the same time, you'd get a good quinine extract because you are using high-proof alcohol. Getting a clean extract is going to be difficult using cinchone. Even pharmacists in the 1800s opted for the pure chemical.
Darcy S. O'Neil
2023-11-01 17:32:55 +0000 UTCI used 150 grams of chinchona bark with 200 ml 90% ABV ethanol. I assumed a 6% quinine concentration in the bark, so I got 45mg/ml quinine extract. I extracted the quinine with ultrasound for 90 minutes at 50 C temperature. I was wondering if a lower time in ultrasound would result in a more "clean" extraction with fewer terpenes? I sourced the bark from: https://www.naturadoriente.com/en/wellbeing/1359-cinchona-bark-whole-cannulae-8056479088430.html?fast_search=fs I contacted the seller to inquire about the quinine content of their cinchona bark, but I doubt that they have any info on that.
Jan
2023-11-01 17:12:15 +0000 UTC
