Vodka & Mediterranean Tonic
A Vodka & Mediterranean Tonic is 50ml of vodka over a copa glass packed with cubed ice, topped with 150ml of Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water and finished with a bruised sprig of lemon thyme or a lemon twist. About 2.0 UK units. The serve is Fever-Tree’s. The tonic does the flavouring. It is made with Mediterranean herbs, rosemary and lemon thyme among them, and vodka adds strength and texture while leaving those herbs alone. A gin would put juniper into the same piney space as the rosemary, and the two would blur. Three parts tonic to one of vodka is longer than many people pour. It suits a glass meant to smell of herbs rather than taste of alcohol, savoury and dry, with quinine on the finish. Make it before food.
Glassware: Copa Glass
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ingredients
150ml
Fever-Tree’s Mediterranean tonic, flavoured with herbs that include rosemary and lemon thyme. It brings every aromatic in the glass; an Indian tonic in its place leaves a plain vodka tonic. Cold and freshly opened.
50ml
An unflavoured vodka at 40% ABV, straight from the freezer. It adds strength and texture, and a rough one shows as burn, since nothing here covers it.
Fill the glass
Cubed, filled to the top. The herb aromas in the tonic fade first as the glass warms, leaving bare quinine.
Instructions
Fill a copa glass with cubed ice.
Pour in the vodka, straight from the freezer.
Top with the Mediterranean tonic, poured slowly down the side of the glass.
Bruise a sprig of lemon thyme between your palms, or express a strip of lemon peel, and drop it in.
Source: the producer's own published serve (Fever-Tree). Last checked 22 August 2026.
Expert Tip
Bruise the herb before it goes in. Roll a sprig of lemon thyme between your palms once and the oils come to the surface, so you smell them with every sip. Dropped in whole and untouched, it adds almost nothing. Keep the vodka in the freezer. It has little flavour to lose, but warm vodka arrives with a spirity burn that cold vodka does not, and nothing else in the glass covers it. Leave the lime in the fruit bowl. Lime pulls the tonic towards a gin and tonic without the gin; lemon peel or lemon thyme stays with the herbs.
Behind the Vodka & Mediterranean Tonic
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Tonic water began as medicine. Quinine, from the bark of the cinchona tree, was taken against malaria, and a sweetened, sparkling tonic made the dose easier to swallow. Schweppes was selling an Indian tonic water by the 1870s.
Vodka came late to British bars and spread through the second half of the twentieth century, largely because it mixed with anything. A vodka tonic is a young drink on an old mixer, and a herbal tonic is younger still.
Why Vodka Here
Gin is the obvious spirit for tonic and the wrong one for this tonic. Juniper is piney and resinous, and so is rosemary. Together they blur rather than layer.
Vodka brings strength and texture and very little flavour, so the herbs in the tonic stay distinct. Here the lack of flavour is the reason to choose it.
Savoury Is the Point
Most long drinks balance sweet against sour. This one is herbal and slightly savoury, with quinine drying the finish, which makes it a drink for before food rather than after.
It is also why the glass takes three parts tonic to one of vodka. At two to one the alcohol comes forward and the herbs recede; at three to one you smell rosemary and thyme first.
Three Tonics, One Vodka
What the tonic does to 50ml of vodka
Indian tonic
- What it brings
- Quinine and sugar
- The drink
- A plain vodka tonic
Mediterranean tonic
- What it brings
- Rosemary and lemon thyme over quinine
- The drink
- Herbal and savoury: this drink
Aromatic tonic
- What it brings
- Angostura bark spice
- The drink
- Pink, bitter and warm
| Tonic | What it brings | The drink |
|---|---|---|
| Indian tonic | Quinine and sugar | A plain vodka tonic |
| Mediterranean tonic | Rosemary and lemon thyme over quinine | Herbal and savoury: this drink |
| Aromatic tonic | Angostura bark spice | Pink, bitter and warm |
For juniper in front, make a Gin and Tonic; for bark spice and colour, a Pink Gin & Tonic.
How to Serve It
A copa holds enough ice to keep 150ml of tonic cold, and its wide bowl gathers the scent of the herbs. Add the garnish last, after the tonic, so the bubbles carry its oils up to the nose.
Make it at home
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Vodka & Mediterranean Tonic?
Why vodka and not gin?
Does the vodka brand matter?
What if I cannot get lemon thyme?
How strong is a Vodka & Mediterranean Tonic?
Can I use a different tonic?
Is the vodka tonic a modern drink?
You Might Also Like
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. Quinine, from the bark of the cinchona tree, was taken against malaria by the British in India, and its bitterness went down more easily with sugar, soda and gin. Erasmus Bond is usually credited with the first commercial tonic water, patented in London in 1858. Modern tonic keeps a small dose of quinine for its bitterness, far too little to treat anything. 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.
Pink Gin & Tonic
A Pink Gin & Tonic is 50ml of juniper-led London Dry gin over plenty of cubed ice in a highball, topped with 150ml of Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Aromatic Tonic Water, with orange peel expressed over the top and dropped in. About 2.0 UK units. The serve is Fever-Tree’s own. The pink comes from the tonic, not the gin. Aromatic tonic is coloured pink (anthocyanins on the label), and its angostura bark adds a warm, spicy bitterness, so the glass looks and tastes closer to the old naval Pink Gin of gin and Angostura bitters than to a sweet pink gin. Expect a bitter drink: quinine from the tonic, bark spice over it and juniper underneath. A gin that is already pink and sweet loses that.
Aperol Spritz
An Aperol Spritz is three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol and one part soda: 90ml prosecco, 60ml Aperol and 30ml soda water, poured in that order into a large wine glass packed with ice, with an orange slice to finish. That is the International Bartenders Association’s Spritz, with its splash of soda measured. Aperol is an Italian aperitivo at 11% ABV, bitter orange with rhubarb and gentian, launched by Luigi and Silvio Barbieri in Padua in 1919. The spritz habit in the Veneto is older; the usual account traces it to Austrian soldiers adding water to the local wine. Pour the prosecco first and the Aperol mixes as it goes in. A glass holds about 1.7 UK units.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Dan Freeman · Updated 12 October 2026