PERFECT SERVE

SERVE PERFECT

COUNT OF COCKTAILS

“WHEN MADE CORRECTLY IT IS A PERFECT BALANCE OF ALCOHOLIC STRENGTH, BITTERNESS, SWEETNESS, AND CITRUS FLAVOURS,” SAID AUSTRALIA’S 2006 BARTENDER OF THE YEAR, OLIVER STUART. “ALL THE WHILE REMAINING FLORAL AND REFRESHING YET STRONG AND SMOOTH. YOU CAN’T STOP AFTER THE FIRST NEGRONI, AS IT LEAVES YOU CRAVING THE NEXT.”

BELOW: Shaking it up - at South Africa’s top cocktail bar, Cause + Effect in Cape Town, is Justin Shaw who developed the local spin on a classic.

Out of four gin producers interviewed for this issue’s story on the versatile and wildly popular spirit, three said the Negroni was their favourite gin cocktail. What’s more, bartenders and mixologists are also more likely to favour a Negroni in their downtime than a Martini, Cosmopolitan or Manhattan.

Various sources disagree on the origins of the cocktail – and even on the geographical location of the Count which the drink is named after. (Most cite his Italian – Florentine – roots while others say he was from Corsica.)

What they do agree on is that it became popular in the second decade of the 20th century and that it was the refinement of a previously well loved drink dubbed the Americano. And that particular tipple has an interesting history of its own. Writing on www.eater. com in 2015, Naren Young cited the influx of Americans to Italy after Prohibition (1920 – 1933) was proclaimed in the United States for the growth of the cocktail.

Already well known locally as the Milano-Torino or MiTo, it was a mix of Campari (from Milan) and Cinzano (from Turin) – but the American visitors liked a bit of fizz so asked for it to be topped off with soda water. Hence the Americano. The Campari contributed a bitter fruitiness and herbal flavour while the vermouth of Cinzano added sweet dryness.

Count Camillo Negroni was a well documented lover of all things alcoholic, and needed something a little more fortifying than soda so instructed his local bartender to swop out the soda for gin. He was known to polish off 10 – albeit small glasses – in a sitting! Soon other punters were wanting their Americano cocktail the Negroni way.

Renowned film director Orson Welles was one of the first people to document the Negroni, Wikipedia reports. While working in Rome in 1947 he described the Negroni thus: “The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.”

The classic Negroni is one part vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), one part Campari and one part gin, mixed together and served over ice, garnished with a twist of orange peel.

Justin Shaw, the main drink slinger behind Cape Town’s popular Cause + Effect Cocktail Kitchen which won Cocktail Bar of the Year in the recent BAR awards (along with Bar Team of the Year) has put his South African spin on this classic by utilising a local gin as well as Caperitif, a local Vermouth. (All CHEERS readers are welcome to try this at home. And if anyone is sufficiently fascinated by the story, Florentine bartender Luca Picchi is such a fan that he wrote a book: Sulle Tracce del Conte: La Vera Storia del Cocktail Negroni. Translated, it is On the trail of the Count: The True Story of the Negroni. The book was only translated a few years ago and is apparently difficult to find – even overseas!)

CAPE NEGRONI 25ml Blind Tiger gin 25ml Campari 25ml Caperitif (South African vermouth) 2 dashes orange bitters Mix together all the ingredients and serve garnished with a slice of dehydrated orange and a small sprig of lemon buchu.

THE STORY OF INDIAN TONIC WATER IS MORE THAN JUST ABOUT ADDING BITTERNESS IN COCKTAIL YIN-YANG, WRITES CLIFFORD ROBERTS.

IN PRAISE OF BITTER NESS

You have to wonder how a mixer that has been so big in the gin revolution has failed to share nearly the same amount of limelight.

Why does tonic water largely remain in a low-key sidekick role when, like gin, it’s made with botanicals but far cheaper to make, not confined by onerous liquor laws and taxation and, has far wider potential? The general history is wellknown, so here’s the abbreviation. Tonic was born from its association with quinine, a compound used as far back as 1600s in South America, where cinchona trees were concentrated, against malaria. The history of quinine itself is fascinating and as intriguing as any globally-impacting drug can be. Imagine having the global monopoly for Penicillin or Statins. For quinine in

ABOVE: The gin & tonic is no longer a simple drink. Ramping up the wow factor by adding herbs and other garnishes has become commonplace.

LEFT: Flashback – how an apothecary would have presented quinine in a previous century.

the 1800s, that turned out to be the Dutch, who had added cinchona to its plantations in Java and boomed in supplying the demands of colonialism.

It was around this time that gin was on European minds too with Britain notoriously finding its taste for the drink (also thanks to the Dutch). No surprise then when it was discovered that the bitter tincture of cinchona bark used to release the quinine, could be made more palatable by adding a mix of sugar water and a spot of Mother’s Ruin.

The race to commercialise “tonic water” was eventually won by Swiss amateur scientist Johann Schweppe, who brought botanicals to the mix along with his invention of commercial water carbonation. Schweppe launched his Tonic Water in 1870 and named it after India, jewel of the British Empire.

The quinine business was on

a good wicket until the turmoil of WW2, which spurred not only the expansion of these invasive plantations to other parts of the world, as in Central Africa, but the roll-out of more effective, synthetic anti-malarials too. So, the reliance on cinchona and quinine subsided. Tonic however, lived on thanks to the taste we’ve developed, not only in G&T but bitters and vermouth too.

Closer to home, G&T’s became the go-to drink on safari long before the thirst for craft gin arose. On this note an abiding myth needs to be busted: you’re not going to beat malaria with the cocktail. The amount of quinine in commercial tonics is so low, you’re likely the effects of excessive alcohol and/or sugar will take you down before achieving the medical quantity to threaten the disease. But today, various brands are available in South Africa including internationals Fever-Tree (“If 3/4 of your drinks is mixer, mix with the best”), Q Tonic, Fentiman’s, Franklin & Sons, Goldberg, Lamb & Watt and Schweppes; Swaan, Swartland winemaker Adi Badenhorst’s brand that launched in 2014; Socks Tonic; Durban’s 031 Tonic Cordial; Franschhoek-based Geometric Drinks’ tonic cordials; and, Cape Town’s Cinchona Tonic Water.

It’s also not a one-size-fits-all game either. Taste profiles differ wildly and these days colour too: think pink and blue.

Distiller Dys Grundling of Grundheim, who makes gins including Black Mountain, Naakte

RIGHT: The first commercial tonic brand the world saw and fell in love with is also the most widely recognised nowadays.

BELOW: Tonic water comes in many guises – sugar-free, pink, blue, elderflower and more!

Not all gins like a flavoured tonic, but exploring the matches is part of the enjoyment

Naartjie and Doringrosie, admits his preference for a simple tonic, where the gin botanicals get to shine. “But flavoured and coloured tonics bring diversity and new waves of excitement to the category, especially at the entry level.

“Not all gins like a flavoured tonic, but exploring the matches is part of the enjoyment,” he says. Barker & Quinn is one tonic home-grown success story that has enjoyed meteoric rise, going from kitchen brewer to export in some two years. Hanneli van der Merwe, who has a PhD in Viniculture from the University of Stellenbosch, and Chris Wium previously worked in the cork industry when they launched the new enterprise. Hanneli noticed that growth in gin diversity wasn’t matched by tonic and so googled DIY tonic and started a test brew in her kitchen.

The first, small batch was such a success, a pre-order for 60 bottles arrived from Asara Estate’s gin bar. She realised it was time to get serious. Their branding and product saw them involved in a major collaboration with Hendrick’s Gin. In November last year, they moved into their first official premises in Klapmuts, near Paarl. Fortune has also favoured the Stellenbosch-based brand inspired by the 16th century British explorers Ralph Fitch and William Leedes. Chill Beverages, the company that makes Fitch & Leedes tonic and several other drinks, was acquired in 2017 by SA businessman Brian Joffe in a nine-figure deal.

Clearly, tonic (and the soft drink game) is no small beans. Fever Tree Drinks PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and valued at around £3-billion (±R57-billion).

But hold up just a sec before you set out to build your own tonic empire. Kommetjie-based botanist Stefan Wiswedel launched his Little Wolf brewery’s Cape Dry Tonic in the process of expanding his range. “G&T has always been a go-to refreshing drink for me so [tonic] made sense. Once I delved into the history and some old-school recipes, the botanical aspects really grabbed me!” Still, it wasn’t easy. “It remains one of the most difficult recipes I’ve ever worked on,” he says.

“The very big guys essentially just use chemical quinine, sugar, water and citric acid. Little Wolf wanted to be different, so we use cinchona bark, lemon grass, lime leaves, orange zest, allspice, salt, citric acid, sugar and water. And we use the actual whole botanicals, not just extracts or ‘nature identical’ flavourings.” But that’s all coming to an end and the tonic is being discontinued, essentially due to pack size and price point, plus bars prefer a single serve to keep trade easy and quick, says Stefan. His view now might offer a reality check for any craft enterprise. Asked why tonic diversity has lagged behind gin, he reckons: “As long as you have an inexpensive, decent tonic that isn’t too sweet and can support/play with most gins, then the vast majority of people will just go for that.”

ABOVE: Who wouldn’t find this moisturebedecked cocktail pretty and appealing? And it’s all because of the tonic...

GOT THE BLUES? Ever notice a blue tinge to your G&T? It’s the quinine alkaloid that makes tonic glow neon when exposed to UV light. Bars use a black light as a nifty trick to show off their stock, but it’s also the reason a G&T changes its hue in sunlight. The phenomenon is common with craft tonics, which generally use higher levels of quinine.

BELOW: The dried bark of the Cinchona tree is what adds the distinct quinine bitterness to tonic but this is what the raw material looks like.

THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT Tonic ingredients are household items. Cinchona bark and quinine will take a little more digging. Gauteng-based Distillique sells quinine online for R220 for 20g – enough to make at least 240-litres of tonic if used at the maximum dosage. Another online site, Brew For Africa, sells cinchona bark at R30 for 20g. Most importantly, be aware that quinine in concentrated form poses severe health risks.