Homemade Tonic

I was so excited about learning how to make homemade tonic & I was not let down! It was a ton of fun. Vodka or gin & tonic are my drink of choice. And now I'm ruined and don't think I can ever drink commercial tonic again.

I went with my mother-in-law to her book club meeting. Tonight they were getting together to make tonic. I have now been to 2 of their meetings and I haven't heard them talk about books yet. They eat and drink lots of good stuff. So I'm thinking I need to join a book club. Although, one of the ladies lent me a book about a blogger that looks funny.

 My mother-in-law's famous roasted caprese salad. She slow roasts the tomatoes, tops with garlic, fresh mozzarella, basil, and balsamic. Love when she makes this.

 This was amazing! Curry squash soup. A couple different kinds of squash, sweet potatoes, homemade curry paste, yummy.

  One of the lady's daughter was in town from Wisconsin. That's fresh Wisconsin cheese she brought with her.

I got a very interesting history lesson first. Tonic was originally made to fight malaria. This cinchona bark has a lot of medicinal properties. But it allegedly isn't that tasty by itself. So long, long ago, they started adding sugar and liquor to it so it was palatable. So the one good thing that came from malaria is gin & tonics. And this is why some people call medicine "tonic." I will say that I really do think it cleared my sinuses a bit. I wasn't congested, but it felt like my head was a little clearer. Or maybe it was the gin, who knows......(I only had 1 gin & tonic).

This smelled earthy. A little like tea, a little like cinnamon, a little like dirt. It's a ground powder.

 

Recipe:

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups pure cane sugar
• 3 Tbsp. quinine (powdered cinchona bark; available in some herb stores or online)
• 6 Tbsp. powdered citric acid (found in the bulk section of most well-stocked grocery stores)
• 3 limes, zested and juiced
• 3 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped

Zest and juice limes.

Add the cinchona bark.

Raw sugar. The tonic was amazing good. But we were all in agreement to cut the sugar for the next batch.

Add water.

Lemongrass.

Simmer for about 45 minutes.

 Two amazing gins. The Death's Door is a Wisconsin brand (remember the daughter from Wisconsin with the cheese?). The Nolet's is The.Best.Gin.Ever.Ever.And.Ever. I would never have thought I would say that gin could be drank straight on the rocks (no vermouth, olives, nada), but this can.

Our tonic is not carbonated. You carbonate it with sparkling water or club soda. That's some bottled tonic that we didn't even open because the homemade was so good.

Strain it.

Citric acid

That's it. That's tonic.

On ice. It was supposed to chill for a couple hours, but we fast-tracked it.

We poured a couple shots so we could taste the gins and decide which one we wanted. I chose the Nolet's.

Mixin it up.

We did about 1 tblsp of the tonic in each glass. And then everyone played with how much carbonated water to add to their taste.

I forgot to take pictures of dessert. We had gelato and apricot biscotti. Yum.

I love needlepoint art. And that's a needlepoint pesto recipe. WHAT?!?! How cute is that?!?!