It started with a question: shouldn’t my tonic be as good as my gin?
It was a warm summer night in Brooklyn and some good friends were in my backyard for gin & tonics. A few drinks in, my teeth felt sticky. I picked up the bottle of tonic water. 32 grams of high fructose corn syrup! Artificial flavors. And artificial preservatives. Sara was drinking a Sprite. I asked to see the can.
'Do you know that tonic water is virtually the same thing as Sprite?' 'Really?'
Maybe it was the gin, but the idea lingered. Justin brought this great bottle of Tanqueray over. And we were mixing it drink after drink with something lousy. The moon was shining down on the table. The light caught the gin, transforming it into a glowing orb of green goodness. Next to it, the plastic tonic water bottle with its label peeling off and its contents going flat looked particularly decrepit.
I realized I should make a superior tonic water. One good enough to mix with my favorite gins - less sweet and made from real ingredients.