Tonic Water Experiment #2

I have learned a little about cinchona since my last posting, but not enough to report back too much on. Suffice it to say that the South American tree grows in the hills of Ecuador and has been transplanted on numerous occasions, and people are not so good at classifying it. As such, I highly suspect that not everyone knows what cinchona bark they are purchasing, even if the herb companies claim to know.

My last tonic water was good. The fragrant nose was among its best characteristics. For my second batch, I want to make two big adjustments. The first is to remove all citrus peel. This is not because citrus is undesirable, but because it dominates both nose and flavor profile. So here is the recipe I followed this time:

4 cups water
1/4 cup cinchona bark (heaping, ground into more or less a powder)
15 cardamom pods
1 tsp coriander seeds
about 1/3 cup lavender
1 tbsp jasmine
two big handfuls of lemon balm.
1/4 tsp sea salt

brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then let it steep for an additional hour.

UPDATE:

After one day of steeping in the fridge, I transferred it to a carafe and let it sit another day in the fridge. Then the entire mixture was strained through a paper filter.

honey tonic #2

Then, three different tonics were made with different sugar profiles.

Agave syrup: 3/4 cup agave syrup (plus some) for 1 1/4 cinchona syrup.

Honey: 1/2 cup tupelo honey for 1 cup cinchona syrup.


Sugar: 1 1/4 cup rich syrup (2-1 ratio) for 1 cup cinchona syrup. This was a mistake--I poured more syrup in, carelessly, than I should have. The result will be a cloyingly sweet syrup.