Spirit Alternative and Tonic

Gin & Tonic

A Gin and Tonic is 50ml of gin and 100ml of chilled Indian tonic water, one to two, in a copa or highball filled to the top with ice, with a lime wedge squeezed over and dropped in and a single stir. About 2.0 UK units. Tonic began as medicine. The Oxford Companion says the drink dates from the later nineteenth century, from most accounts in British colonial India, where soldiers mixed gin with their antimalarial quinine water, and that it first appears in print in 1868. It says Erasmus Bond patented the first aerated tonic liquid, soda water spiked with quinine, on 28 May 1858, and that most modern tonic waters hold far less quinine than the nineteenth-century kind. With two ingredients, the ice and the tonic decide the drink as much as the gin. A glass packed with ice stays cold and dilutes slowly; fresh tonic from a small bottle keeps the fizz that carries the gin’s aroma.

Alcohol-free Spritz

An Alcohol-free Spritz is 50ml of alcohol-free aperitif and 100ml of soda water or tonic water, built over a wine glass full of ice, with an orange slice. It is alcohol-free, and the strength of the aperitif is printed on its label, at some figure up to 0.5% ABV. It keeps the structure of an [Aperol Spritz](/field-manual/cocktails/aperol-spritz/): a bittersweet orange aperitif, a sparkling element and an orange slice in a wine glass. There is no prosecco, so the fizz comes from the soda or tonic and the proportions are our own.

Virgin Mojito

A Virgin Mojito is ten mint leaves pressed gently with 25ml fresh lime juice and 20ml simple syrup in a highball, packed with crushed ice and topped with 120ml of soda water, then finished with a slapped mint sprig and a lime wheel. It contains no alcohol, so there are no units to count. It is the Mojito with the rum left out and the build kept whole. The Mojito’s flavour sits in mint, lime, sugar and soda, so taking out the rum costs it warmth and a little body rather than its character. Against the Mojito, syrup replaces the two teaspoons of sugar, because it mixes into cold lime at once, and the lime rises from 20ml to 25ml to keep the longer soda pour sharp.

Arnold Palmer

An Arnold Palmer is 135ml of cold, unsweetened black tea and 45ml of still, cloudy lemonade, three parts to one, built over ice in a highball and stirred once, with a lemon wheel. It is alcohol-free. The tea carries some caffeine. It is named for the golfer Arnold Palmer; his official site says that after a hot day on the course he used to ask his wife Winnie to make him an iced tea with lemonade in it. AriZona’s page quotes him on how the name began: he asked for iced tea with some lemonade in it, and a lady across the aisle said she would have an Arnold Palmer. Golf Monthly says Palmer preferred one part lemonade to three parts iced tea, while the AriZona Beverage Company’s drink is half tea and half lemonade by AriZona’s own account, which is sweeter. At three to one the tea leads, and its tannin keeps the finish dry.