October 19th is International Gin & Tonic Day and we bet you’re wondering where tonics actually came from. You are now. Well, Pierre-Joseph Pelletier is the person we tend to credit for starting us on the right path.
In 1820 Pelletier lead a team who successfully extracted quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree â thus saving the world from Malaria.
Used in hundreds of tonics, aromatised wines, bitters and spirits, quinine has played a huge role in cocktail history and was key in Colonial expansion during the 19th century. Without Quinine, European expansion into Africa, Asia and the tropics would have been almost impossible. Frankly, this might’ve been better for everyone, not least the people who lived in these countries, but there you go.
The French drank Absinthe in Algeria whilst fighting both the man and mosquitoes (*see below for more on these bellends)Â in Algeria while those serving in British colonial India sipped gin and quinine-heavy tonics. Winston Churchill famously declared that the humble Gin & Tonic saved âmore Englishmenâs lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire,â
However, what Winston failed to mention is that youâd have to drink 300 gin and tonics a day to ward off Malaria. Which would give you the shits. And kill you. But at least you wouldnât have malaria.
Today, quinine can be found in numerous tonic waters, bitters, herbal liqueurs, vermouth and quinquinas â such as Cocchi Americano, Lillet Blanc, Dubonnet Rouge Aperitif and Byrrh Grand Quinquina.
But what tonic should you use in your gin? Well, there are bars in the world where you’ll find more than 30 different varieties now, so to opt for one or two is restricting the flavours you can enjoy. The best approach is to look at the botanicals in your gin and try and find a mixer that compliments them. We’re using London Essence at the moment, we’ve been tasting the mixers in our shows and because the tonic includes distilled essences of citrus and juniper, which really compliments proper, juniper forward gins.
*Mosquitos are little bell-ends. But hereâs a miscellany of mosquito facts with which to regale friends and strangers alike: Mosquitos have 47 teeth and are the worldâs deadliest animal, spreading fatal diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, Zika, yellow fever and itchy balls.
As such, they are responsible for killing more than half the people that have ever lived and rack up an average annual global body count of one million. The women are the worst, as theyâre the only ones who bite; but also watch out for the silent ones too – you canât get malaria from a mosquito that buzzes. But theyâll still give you all the other lurgies. Bellends.
Mosquitos have a special organ, the maxillary palp, to detect CO2 released from human breath and then, once located, and given the choice, theyâll always bite the ankle â often drinking three times their own body weight in blood. They also like to bite people who have just eaten bananas.
So why donât we just kill them all? Well, apparently that would be a bad move because theyâre prime pollinators and the ecosystem would collapse like a clown car.
Donât feel guilty if you do splat one against a wall with a newspaper though â as, with an average lifespan of just two months, it wasnât going to live much longer anyway.
And, as discussed, theyâre bell-ends.
