Mind your Qs

With store shelves becoming ever more crowded with specialty products, I thought I would take the opportunity to share a few of my favourites with you*. The world’s finest spirits deserve to be treated with respect, which means using proper technique, the best ice, glassware and top quality modifying ingredients. This month, let’s have a look at the best tonic water I have ever tasted…… Q Tonic.

Having first tried Q Tonic abroad a few years ago, I have been desperate to find it in Canada. Good news as it is now available nationwide through Global Wine & Spirits. The folks at Q Tonic had this to say about their product:

“You now have no alternative but to drown your gin, vodka or rum of choice with a tonic water of compromised quality. Designed from unpronounceable ingredients by multinational corporations, sweetened beyond recognition with high fructose corn syrup and packaged in generic containers, the typical tonic water is an afterthought that adds nothing to the drinking experience.

Q Tonic is dedicated to making the world’s best tonic water – a clean, crisp, completely ungeneric beverage that enhances the finest spirits or stands proudly on its own. We’ve used the best ingredients we could find. We went to the slopes of the Peruvian Andes for hand-picked quinine and to the Mexican countryside for organic agave, a sweetener better than honey with a gently rounded sweetness. We meticulously refined our recipe with both food scientists and mixologists. Then we worked with one of New York City’s best design shops to develop a bottle as beautiful as the liquid it holds. We think we’ve come up with a superior tonic water. One that’s good enough for the gin, vodka or rum you’d choose to mix it with. And good enough to change the way you think about tonic water.

Unlike other tonic waters, Q Tonic is made with:

  • Hand-picked quinine from the Peruvian Andes
  • Organic agave as the sweetener
  • 60% fewer calories than regular tonic water
  • All natural ingredients
  • No high fructose corn syrup
  • 85% lower glycemic rating than other tonic waters

Q Tonic tastes clean and crisp, as tonic water was intended, with a quick sharpness and a gently rounded sweetness. The bottle is perfectly proportioned for one proper drink. And there’s a reason it’s called tonic – Q Tonic’s natural quinine is believed to improve circulation and accelerate digestion. For centuries, natural Peruvian quinine has been used by naturalists and herbalists to improve health, increase energy and stimulate blood flow.

Do yourself a favour and pick some up today. In a head to head taste-test I recently held, Q Tonic won hands down. Try it for yourself – the proof is in the pudding.

Some recipes you might enjoy with Q Tonic include:

Holi-tonic
Two 12 oz bags of fresh cranberries
1 cup of sugar
½ cup water
1 1/4 cups gin

Bring the fresh cranberries, sugar, and water to simmer in a saucepan. Stir occasionally – about two minutes – until berries begin to pop. Drain cranberries in a fine-mesh sieve into a pitcher. Set aside 2 cups of cranberries and force the rest through the sieve. Discard solids remaining in sieve, then add set aside cranberries to the mixture. Chill for about two hours, until cold. Add the gin and stir. Fill highball glasses with ice. Pour cranberry mixture into glasses. Top off glasses with Q Tonic as desired. (Adapted from Gourmet Magazine)

Q-cumber Fizz
1.5 oz Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila
3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1 oz fresh grapefruit juice

Dollop of light agave nectar from Sweet Cactus Farms Organic

3 cucumber wheels (2 muddled, 1 garnish)
1 oz Q Tonic

Add the agave nectar, lime, grapefruit juice and 2 cucumber slices to a mixing glass and muddle. Add the tequila and shake and strain into a fizz glass. Top with 1 oz Q Tonic and garnish with a cucumber wheel on the glass’s rim. (Developed for Q Tonic by bartender Jim Meehan [PDT in NYC].)

If you know of any unique products you think might interest me, please drop me a line!

Stay thirsty,
Rob.

Rob Montgomery, Bar Chef
The Miller Tavern www.themiller.ca

*For the record, you can’t buy my love! I have tried all products mentioned and have no affiliation with parent companies. Know your drinks and call your shots.