Home Made Tonic Water Concentrate

How to make your own home made tonic water. Basically Jeffrey Morgenthaler's recipe, only Instructables style! http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/how-to-make-your-own-tonic-water/

Step 1 Recipe and first steps

Here's the recipe:
4 cups water
1 cup chopped lemongrass (about 2 stalks for me)
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 cardamom bits
1/4 cup citric acid
1/4 tsp pink hawaiian salt

First I zested the citrus fruits, using a microplane grater.

Comments

[ralizon]

The quinine is the thing in tonic that causes it to glow under uv. Without any of that in it there will be no glowing.

[Batness]

Has anyone tried to see if this glows under UV? Commercial tonic is different than homemade, so trying to figure out if the cinchona creates the right kind of quinine to glow...:P

[Benstar]

My uncle and I investigated this... couldn't get it to glow.
Possible too much else is in there absorbing any luminescence it might give off... it's pretty brown stuff after all.

[scoochmaroo]

I've been wanting to make my own tonic for a while now. Too much HFCS in commercial tonic! But this sounds tricky. . . How long does the concentrate last?

[Benstar]

It's not tricky, if you have the ingredients it's like 35 minutes to done. I dunno, the concentrate is fulla citric acid and stuff so should be preserved pretty well. I haven't had any go bad, but some bottle of syrup I mixed up got kinda gelled after a few months.

[johncavanagh]

Hello all,  I have been producing handcrafted small batch tonic syrup for my restaurant for over a year now.  If you want all the pleasure and none of the hassle I now have it available nationwide.  Please visit me at www.johnstonic.com for more details, and spread the word.  John

[Benstar]

Update! Limbo on SE 39th in Portland has cinchona bark, maybe spelled chinchona bark, on the wall of herbs. It's not powdered though, so you'd have to grind it up somehow or steep it a long time maybe.

[kill-a-watt]

I considered doing something similar except first I'd talk my Doc into a prescription for quinine tablets. They're on someone's $4 for a 30-day generic medication list. Then I'd mix only a small crushed amount with some cane sugar in to a carny keg and force carbonate. I never got past the planning stage because I prefer sour-mash whiskey over gin.

[jessyratfink]

This looks really good! All I drink is tea, so it would be nice to try something else. :D

[Benstar]

It is super delicious, if I do say so myself. I'm a little worried about cinchonism...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinchonism
I have no idea how much quinine I'm getting from a tablespoon of my concoction.

[AzureEyes]

where do you even get the Cinchonism? I've never even heard of it.

[Phoghat]

PLEASE don't worry says this old pharmacist. The dose you're getting here is WAY less than even the therapeutic dose of 5 grains (about 300 mg.) daily

[Esmagamus]

If you loose your mighty strength down there, you'll know you're drinking too much tonic.

[julibelle]

This looks great! Am I seeing CELERY in the photos but not in the recipe? I'm ready to go shopping, need to know.

[arhillbilly]

That is the lemon grass.

[Benstar]

That's lemongrass!

[davemackmiller]

I'm keen to try it, but I have one question: Liquid or powdered citric acid ? I have both and a quarter cup of one does not equal a quarter cup of the other! I've been making my own for about 10 years using a commercial tonic concentrate, Splenda and a soda charger. This sounds better... Thanks!

[Benstar]

I used powdered, I'm pretty sure that's what Jeffrey specified.

[scoochmaroo]

You got Lifehackered!

[Gray-Fox]

Hmm not a big fan of tonic water but i'll have to give this one a try haha