Cocktail · Medium strength
Gin & Tonic
Botanical, bracing, and never wrong. The reliable genius of the bar.
How to order it: Good tonic matters more than fancy gin. Lime or grapefruit peel.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 2 oz London dry gin
- 4 oz good tonic water
- Build over plenty of ice
- Highball or copa glass
- Lime or grapefruit peel
The story
Born of empire and chemistry. Quinine, ground from cinchona bark, was the nineteenth century's defense against malaria, and British officers in colonial India choked it down daily — until someone added sugar, soda, lime, and the gin ration, converting medicine into ritual. Commercial tonic water followed; Erasmus Bond patented an early version in 1858, and Schweppes brought its Indian Tonic Water to market soon after. The drink sailed home to Britain and never left. Winston Churchill is credited with declaring that gin and tonic saved more Englishmen's lives and minds than all the doctors in the Empire. It endures because it is barely a recipe and entirely a reflex: botanical, bitter, cold, correct.
Modern variations
The Gin & Tonic cast a long shadow. These pours carry the torch:
Adjacent pours