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You know how gin is made, now what about the other half of the equation in your Gin & Tonic? Tonic water actually grows on trees. Cinchona trees. Tonic water is a carbonated soft drink that contains quinine. In modern times, we have the ability to synthesize quinine in a lab, however historically its only naturally occurring source was the Cinchona tree. Discovery of the Cinchona plant Cinchona trees had widespread use as a muscle relaxant by the Quechua people native to Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, to treat shivering and fever. They would mix ground bark of the Cinchona trees with...

Not everyone is born a mixologist. Actually no, nobody is born a mixologist. If you are like me, you might walk into a specialty cocktail shop and look blankly at many of the bottles and products in there, or marvel in wonder at the mystery of how such a gorgeous drink was presented to you at a cocktail bar. I will actually show you the most surreal gin cocktail I have ever been served - it is a real photo I took about 3 years ago at "Bar Chef" in Toronto, Canada. I barely knew what cocktails were at the...

As you may have read from our most recent article, The Truth About Gin, you would have learned that liquors begin as neutral alcohol that have undergone an infusion with botanicals. This unveils a little more of the story of how alcohol was used as a medicine to treat illnesses many years ago. Tinctures for Herbal Medicine Herbal medicine has been used as the primary mode of healthcare for nearly all of human history prior to the modern world. Today, people go to doctors and are given perscription drugs that were made in a lab. Botanicals (plant products) were instead perscribed and given to...

When reading through the instructions of your new Do Your Gin kit, you may notice that you are prompted to use a neutral alcohol base such as vodka to make your gin. You may stop and wonder to yourself: "Hold on! I am infusing vodka, but am I really making gin like I would find at the store?"  The answer to that is actually: "Yes!" Gin is a spirit (meaning a distilled alcoholic drink) that derives its flavour from juniper berries (Juniperus communis). Gin is a broad "category" of spirits, where many different unique recipes can become gin.  What are...