koko's corner

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

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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