Drinks With Tonic Water That Are Not a Gin and Tonic

We keep tonic in the house year-round, and for years we only ever put gin in it. That was a waste of a genuinely unusual ingredient, and it took us far too long to work out why.

Here is the thing about tonic. Every other mixer on the shelf is sweet, sour, or neutral. Cola is sweet. Lemonade is sour and sweet. Soda water is nothing at all. Tonic is the only one that shows up carrying bitterness, and bitterness is the hardest thing to add to a drink from a can.

That makes it useful in far more places than we had been using it.

What is actually in it

Quinine, from cinchona bark, at a legally capped concentration — 83 parts per million in the US, similar elsewhere. That is a small amount and it is enough, because bitter compounds register at very low thresholds.

Alongside it: sugar, and quite a lot of it. A standard tonic carries roughly as much sugar as a cola, which surprises people who think of it as the austere option. The bitterness masks the sweetness rather than removing it.

This matters when you are building. Tonic is simultaneously a bitter agent and a sweetener, and you have to account for both.

Gin, done properly

We will get this out of the way, because there is a version that is better than the one most people make.

Basil Gin and Tonic adds lime and fresh basil. The basil is the addition worth stealing — its aromatics sit right alongside juniper and the drink gains a whole dimension for almost no effort.

Gin and Bitter Lemon uses lemon juice and superfine sugar for a sharper, drier result.

Bahamas Highball brings French vermouth into it, and Bombay Safari layers sour mix and lime cordial.

Nicky’s 1 a.m. Sunrise adds pineapple juice — tropical fruit against quinine is better than it has any right to be.

Java Cooler is gin, bitters, lime and tonic, which stacks a second bitter on the first and is the driest thing on this page.

Vodka and tonic

Underrated, and the drink we make most often in summer.

Vodka contributes nothing, which means a vodka tonic is essentially a quinine drink with alcohol in it — the tonic’s own character is fully audible in a way it never is next to gin.

Absolut Limousine is citron vodka, lime and tonic. Mandarin Delight and Johnny Rev both use mandarin vodka, and orange against quinine is the single best flavoured-vodka pairing we have found.

Blushin’ Russian #2 adds cranberry and lime, and Red Tonic uses grenadine and lemon for colour and sweetness.

RumRunner’s RubyRed is vodka, ruby red grapefruit and tonic — grapefruit’s naringin and tonic’s quinine are both bitter, and stacking them makes a genuinely adult drink.

Where it gets interesting

These are the ones that changed how we think about the bottle.

Chartreuse and Tonic is exactly what it says, over ice. Chartreuse is 130 herbs and quinine is one bitter note, and together they make something like an herbal soda for adults. If you try one drink from this list, we would make it this one.

Bavorak is Fernet Branca and tonic — two bitters, no sweetener beyond the tonic’s own, and startlingly good after a heavy meal.

Baby Becher uses Becherovka and mint, which gives you cinnamon, mint and quinine in one glass.

Brandy Water Press is brandy, tonic and plain water — an old formula, and the water is there to cut the tonic’s sugar rather than the brandy.

Austrian Hussar is apricot brandy and tonic, two ingredients, and the stone fruit is lovely against the bitterness.

Redneck Blitzkreig sets Southern Comfort and Jägermeister against it, and Smurf-o-Tonic is a blue gin and tonic for when the occasion calls for one.

Keeping it fizzy

Cold tonic, always. Carbon dioxide solubility falls as temperature rises, so warm tonic loses its fizz into the glass immediately and what is left is sweet and flat. Chill the bottle, not just the glass.

Small bottles beat big ones. An opened litre of tonic is noticeably flat by the second day and undrinkable by the third. Cans or 200ml bottles cost more per serve and waste less.

If quinine is what you are after rather than sugar, the low-sugar tonics have improved enormously in the last few years, and they change these recipes for the better — particularly the bitter-on-bitter builds above.

Nearby reading: our gin mixer guide, the best gin cocktails, and the bitters flavour guide for more on the bitter side of a bar. Recipes at CocktailBuilder.

Last modified on September 13, 2026