Cinchona bark mixed with citrus fruits, lemongrass, and a bit of spice produces a wonderful homemade tonic water syrup. Add this to seltzer water with a squeeze of lime and you have a refreshing summer cooler
Mmmm come to Mama.
Here's how it's done.
First, I must give credit where credit is due. I snagged this from Jeffrey Morgenthaler an accomplished mixologist.
To start, you need the zest from a lemon, an orange and a lime.
Add this to 4 cups of water in a medium saucepan.
Add the juice from each of the fruits.
Then some citric acid, cinchona bark and lemongrass.
The lower notes, the spicy part comes from allspice and a bit of salt. Stir, stir, stir.
Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to low, cover and simmer.
Strain out the solids, then you'll need to fine strain the mixture.
I had to strain it 3 times through many layers of cheesecloth to get a clear liquid.
Now you need to heat your liquid back up and add the agave syrup, stir a bit and pour into your storage bottle. You'll end up with about 4 cups of tonic syrup.
Add the amount of syrup to your taste. I started with 3/4 of an ounce in a 12 oz glass with ice. I eventually reduced it to about 1/4 ounce, and that suits me fine.
Fill glass with seltzer water and...
enjoy!
I ordered the cinchonna bark from Amazon
Here's Jeffrey's recipe
@@@@@ Now You're Cooking! Export Format
Tonic Syrup
4 cups water
1 cup chopped lemongrass (roughly one lar; ge 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
stovetop 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
** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.87 **
And that's that