Welcome to Drinking the World; my thoughts on fine libations, special spirits, and fabulous cocktails. My name is Jonathan M. Forester and I'm a food & beverage writer / consultant, and formerly partner in a winery and brewery in Maine. Now, my new partner and I are currently in the process of starting an artisanal, farm distillery located on 370 acres in New York State called Dutch's Spirits. We will be specializing in premium, hand-made spirits. These will include bourbon, rye, and malt whiskey, peach and apple brandy, a variety of aged rum, gin, liqueurs, and cocktail bitters.
If the post is dated prior to December 13, 2008, it was previously published at Slashfood.com / AOL.com.
XML FeedsQ Tonic Water
By Jonathan M. Forester on Jul 5, 2007 | In Juices and Mixers
Q Tonic Water is for when only the best is good enough. There are very few premium mixers on the market, especially tonic water. Now Q Tonic Water is joining the select ranks of premium tonic waters. I got some pre-production samples a few months ago and tried it and found it was very good, but a little on the sweet side. I spoke with the creator, Jordan Silbert, the President of Q Tonic, who spent over four years developing Q Tonic, at first in his New York City kitchen and then later with the help of a food scientist. Jordan said that the final version would be less sweet and have more tang and tartness and he was right.
Recently I received the final product and it was excellent. The taste is very clean, dry, and simple. It's a real tonic water made with natural ingredients and no synthetics. It has a the nice bitterness of real extract of ground cinchona tree bark from Peru (not a synthetic quinine), with a hint of sweetness from organic agave syrup from the Jalisco region of Mexico (none of that nasty High Fructose Corn Syrup), and a tang of tartness from lemon extract which brings it all together.
When mixed with gin it brought out more of the gins flavor than mass market tonic waters, and is great to use with one of the super premium gins I enjoy so much. Why use a lousy tonic water when you use a premium gin? Now you can have both for a much more clean tasting and refined Gin & Tonic.
Q Tonic Water has only been available in 4 charter locations in NY for the past few weeks: Gramercy Tavern, Milk & Honey, Little Branch, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, NY. Jim Meehan, a bartender at Gramercy Tavern says, "We're excited to offer our customers Q Tonic. They've come to expect that Gramercy Tavern carries the highest quality food and beverages available anywhere." As of now, the beginning of July, it should be available at a larger number and range of places in the NY area including grocery stores, and as time goes on it will be available in other regions. Q Tonic Water is a bit pricey, but worth it.
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