JUST THE TONIC

By Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt Kew Publishing, £18.00 ISBN: 978-1-84246-689-6

Beautifully illustrated with archival posters, advertisements, photographs and botanical art, this book explores the vast and varied history of tonic water – a history irrevocably intertwined with the Empire and exploration of the Victorian era.

It also sparkles with some very surprising facts. Did you know, for instance, that tonic water was originally consumed as a digestive? Or that it was first mixed with brandy and rum, rather than gin?

Walker and Nesbitt skilfully cover the history

of tonic water’s key ingredients (quinine and soda water), while also discussing everything worth knowing about the G&T straight from the officers’ messes of British India, including how to make one perfectly.

The book may look on the face of it to be a light-hearted read but it actually tells a serious story. Quinine, found in the bitter bark of the Cinchona tree, became a “tool of empire” (as described by historian, Daniel Headrick). With European governments grappling for more and more territory in the 19th

century, the onset of tropical diseases became a major problem for the colonisers. Quinine was discovered to be the most effective treatment for malaria and therefore became another commodity to fight over.

In addition, the authors chart the rise and fall and rise again of cocktails and bring to life the wonderful, evocative art deco cocktail bars of the heady 1920s.

They trace the progress of G&T right through to the relatively recent sky-rocketing popularity of gin, and the consequences for the not-so-humble mixer.

A chapter at the end includes delicious and varied cocktail recipes inspired by significant historical events.

So pour yourself a large G&T and dive in! There’s a global history to discover in your very glass!