How a Mixer Shapes the Gin: Tonic, Soda, and Sonic

An American spirits publication selected seven gins for the Gin & Tonic (G&T), dividing them into categories such as overall, citrus-forward, and savory. The gin chosen in the overall category did not receive the highest score of the seven. The structure of these categories suggests that a comparison can rest on more than a score.

A notable insight from the reviewer centers not on the gin itself, but on the mixer. New tonic waters keep arriving on the market, from those flavored with yuzu or elderflower to tonics made to complement a specific gin. The reviewer, by contrast, knew of no gin made specifically for the G&T. Even in a drink with only two ingredients, the change is taking place on the mixer side.

Three Elements a Mixer Introduces

What a mixer brings to gin can be grouped into three elements: dilution, bitterness, and sweetness. A typical tonic water is a carbonated drink with the bitterness of quinine, which is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, and a degree of sweetness; its sweeteners and aromatics vary from product to product. Mixing gin with tonic brings in all three elements. Of the three, unsweetened soda water provides only dilution. Both are carbonated, so the main difference between them is whether bitterness and sweetness are added. At the same dilution, tonic adds an outline of bitterness and sweetness from the mixer side, while soda leaves the flavors already in the gin to spread out unaltered.

The review also mentions a form between the two: the “sonic,” in which gin is mixed with both soda water and tonic water, introduced as a Japanese variation on the G&T. Compared with tonic alone, replacing part of the tonic with soda reduces the sweetness and bitterness contributed by the mixer, provided the total amount of mixer (tonic and soda combined) stays the same. The gin the publication selected for its sonic category was distilled from rice and sweet potato.

According to the publication, gins with prominent citrus, pine-like juniper, or herbal aromas generally show an affinity with tonic; the combination to avoid is barrel-aged gin with tonic. In other words, the range of gins that suit tonic is wide. Ultimately, what a gin is mixed with is as much a point of comparison as which gin is chosen.

Reframing Gins Through Their Mixers

What follows looks at six gins handled by Bacchus Global through the serving examples on their product pages and what each mixer adds: whether it brings bitterness and sweetness, and what type of tonic is used.

For the first two, the serving examples highlighted here mainly use mixers that add neither sweetness nor bitterness. Nishino Kinryo’s YUNAGI Japanese Gin, from Kagawa Prefecture, is built on honkaku rice shochu made from Sanuki sake rice and layered with ten botanicals (plants used for aroma), including Setouchi olive, yuzu, and buntan. The producer’s standard serve is one part gin to four parts soda water over plenty of ice. The serving examples also include a G&T made with sudachi.

Hamada Syuzou’s SASSHU Gin, from Kagoshima Prefecture, is based on honkaku imo (sweet potato) shochu, with the aroma of sour pomelo, a citrus fruit, extracted by vapor infusion. Its product page presents it with soda water or hot water and does not list tonic. Mixing with hot water is a common way to serve shochu, and here a shochu-style serve is suggested for a gin built on imo shochu.

For the next two, the G&T examples on the product pages call for a tonic with little aroma of its own, known as a neutral tonic. Niseko Distillery in Hokkaido makes NISEKO ohoro GIN STANDARD, a classic gin at 47% ABV distilled with thirteen botanicals, including sweet gale (bog myrtle), a shrub that grows wild in wetlands, and Japanese mint, both from the town of Niseko. Its G&T example notes that a neutral tonic does not mask the citrus, mint, and sweet gale.

MERIDOR London Dry Gin, from Distillerie Combier in Saumur in France’s Loire Valley, is distilled in a single run with eight botanicals, including rose petals and elderflower, and its sugar content is published as 0 g/L. Taking that figure as stated, the sugar in a G&T made with it comes mainly from the tonic. Its serving example also uses a neutral tonic, noting that the floral aroma remains above a classic dry core.

The remaining two put floral or fruit aromas forward, and both product pages give examples using tonic. Sakurao Distillery in Hiroshima builds SAKURAO GIN WHITE HERBS on its own gin, adding seven botanicals such as white rose, elderflower, and lavender, and bottles it at 47% ABV. The first serving example is a G&T, noting that the white rose, elderflower, and citrus aromas remain even with tonic.

AWAYUKI Strawberry Gin, infused with three strawberry varieties from Nara Prefecture, has a strawberry aroma but a dry character. Its serving example uses a restrained amount of elderflower-flavored tonic. The idea is to keep the amount of tonic low so that it does not cover the strawberry aroma.

The Mixer as Another Axis of Comparison

Looking at the serving examples covered here, the six gins can be arranged into three groups. For the two built on shochu, the serving examples mainly use mixers that add neither bitterness nor sweetness, such as soda or hot water. For the two classic, juniper-centered gins, the examples call for a neutral tonic. For the two that put floral or fruit aromas forward, the examples use tonic, and in the case of AWAYUKI, even the amount of elderflower-flavored tonic is kept low. Serving examples alone cannot establish what the producers intended. Still, looking at the mixer as well as the ingredients and production methods allows a separate comparison, apart from which gin ranks highest: what is added, and what remains. The same gin can look different when seen through its mixer.

This article is intended solely to provide information on the ingredients, production methods and mixer characteristics of gin, including YUNAGI Japanese Gin, SASSHU Gin, NISEKO ohoro GIN STANDARD, MERIDOR London Dry Gin, SAKURAO GIN WHITE HERBS and AWAYUKI Strawberry Gin, and does not aim to promote or encourage the consumption of alcohol. / บทความนี้จัดทำขึ้นเพื่อนำเสนอข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับวัตถุดิบ กระบวนการผลิต และลักษณะของมิกเซอร์ที่ใช้ผสมกับจิน ได้แก่ YUNAGI Japanese Gin, SASSHU Gin, NISEKO ohoro GIN STANDARD, MERIDOR London Dry Gin, SAKURAO GIN WHITE HERBS และ AWAYUKI Strawberry Gin เท่านั้น มิได้มีเจตนาเพื่อส่งเสริมหรือโฆษณาเครื่องดื่มแอลกอฮอล์ สำหรับผู้มีอายุ 20 ปีขึ้นไป โปรดดื่มอย่างรับผิดชอบ

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Related Product(s)

YUNAGI Japanese Gin / SASSHU Gin / NISEKO ohoro GIN STANDARD / MERIDOR London Dry Gin / SAKURAO GIN WHITE HERBS / AWAYUKI Strawberry Gin