Tonic Taster (with a little gin)

As the gin craze continues, so does the demand for the most ubiquitous gin drink of them all - the Gin and Tonic. So we thought it was about time to revisit this drink but the tasting session was one with a difference. Why? Because in this one, we were not examining the gin, but the mixer. Forming at least 3/4 of the drink, why wouldn't you pay the same attention to the tonic as you would the gin?

So it was on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon, we gathered a bunch of gin enthusiasts at a private waterfront location to answer this very question. For this session, we chose to feature as our hero gin, the Moore's Vintage Dry Gin, most recently awarded the Double Gold in the IWSC awards in London in 2017 and a great example of a classic London Dry but with a little of an Aussie twist. Against it, we pitched the Fever Tree Indian tonic, Strangelove no 8, Fever Tree Naturally Light, East Imperial Burma and Old World tonic and the bonus; the Ledgers tonic that was the only one sweetened with the artificial sweetener Stevia. 

As insights go, this session was mind blowing to say the least. Whilst some preferred the tonic on its own, when it came to mixing with the gin, it was another story, which illustrated our case perfectly that not all tonics are created equal. As more and more tonic providers seek to differentiate themselves in the premium mixers market, it is important that consumers understand the difference in taste between all of them and how it would pair with different types of tonics. In all of this however, there was one crowd favourite that stood our both on its own and paired with the gin - the Strangelove no 8, itself a new release at the time of tasting and slightly different to the rest for its addition of juniper in the mix.

Read on next for our encore of the next session, when we paired a different gin with a different range of tonics to find out the perfect tonic...to the gin!