Updated 20-Sep-2023
For some reason I have become more and more interested in consuming less-processed foods and beverages. Perhaps it is five years of living in Northern Thailand where very fresh and local food is actually less expensive and widely available. In addition, there are some kinds of foods which have a lot of interesting characteristics, but the packaged, mass-produced versions have rendered them virtually worthless.
Cinchona Bark or Raw Quinine
The ingredient in Tonic water that makes it effective (or used to before modern recipes and packaging) is quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree. This tree was first discovered in South America but it has been exported and planted in many places elsewhere including Indonesia (and Thailand). I imported from a Canadian company which sourced the bark from Mexico. Eventually I hope to have some of this growing in Thailand for local sourcing.
Tonic Recipe
Tonic has a variety of recipes but the main elements are cinchona bark, some kind of citrus, some kind of sweetener, and possibly other spices. My recipe goes like this (to produce 300ml):
- 1/8 cup (1/2 oz) cinchona bark - powdered
- 1/2 cup chopped lemongrass
- 2 juiced lemons
- 2 juiced oranges
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 allspice berries - powdered
Combine everything except honey, simmer for 30 minutes on low heat, add honey, simmer for 15 minutes.
Pour into container, let cool to room temperature, then filter through Thai coffee/tea sock.
Other Recipes for Tonic
I learned a lot from a variety of online sources, including a NyTimes recipe and a warning on too much quinine (it can be toxic).
DIY Foodism
There are several advantages to this kind of DIY Foodism, including removing money from the global companies, stop consuming food and beverages which are quite unhealthy, control the flavor of what you prepare by starting from the basic component ingredients. Also it is kind of fun to learn about how all this works and experiment in the kitchen.