*AD – the Yorkshire Tonic in this recipe was gifted to our household for this post. All opinions, as always, are our own.
The kind people at Yorkshire Tonics sent us along a sample of some of their tonic range. We set ourselves the challenge of using them as mixers, but avoiding the somewhat obvious pairing of Gin and Tonic. Gin and Tonic has been a staple drink of the UK public for far longer than we’ve been alive, and so it’s a wholly cheap shot. Instead, we decided we’d dabble with other taste fusions – hopefully building on Yorkshire Tonics’ carefully blended flavours
Tonic water has peculiar origins, although I suppose it’s not really weirder than most of the other mixers or liquors out there. Several popular alcoholic drinks started out as medicines before the recipe changed up a little and they found a new role as alcoholic beverages, tonic water had a similar origin. It was originally used as a preemptive medication to reduce the chance of malaria for the British in the colonial India of the early 1800s. After a while, it found its way into several other uses and started being sold commercially. Naturally, it was mixed with alcohol and, well, we’ve all heard about Gin and Tonics, so it clearly works quite well.
Yorkshire Tonic, from Raisthorpe Manor, was actually designed to accompany their own gins – of which they have a massive selection, including lesser-seen ones like Sloe, Damson and Gooseberry. However, as we said at the start of the article, we’re aiming to prove the versatility of the tonics, which means that we’re stepping away from the usual gin pairing.
We already had a few bottles laying around the kitchen which we could put to good use in this experiment, and in the end, we’ve created a fair few mixes. Here’s our first one, with more to follow in the near future.
And the Yorkshire Tonic we used for this one was: Pink Grapefruit Tonic.
The Yorkshire Tonic website says, ‘This tonic with its sharp overtones from the grapefruit offers a crispness to a dry gin or a contrast to a sweet floral or fruit gin. If you are a lover of grapefruit, you can appreciate this simply with ice and a slice of grapefruit or added to a premium Yorkshire dry gin.’
This grapefruit tonic was refreshing as appose to the tart taste you sometimes get with grapefruit flavoured things. I feel it would mix well with most citrus, which is good for me because I am a huge fan of citrus myself.
The Citrus (and) Tart
Ingredients
- 50 ml Lemoncello
- Dash of Bitters
- 50 ml Curacao
- 25 ml Pinot Grigio
- 200 ml Yorkshire Tonic – Pink Grapefruit
Garnish
- Slice of Grapefruit
- Slice of Blood Orange
Instructions
- Pour half of the tonic into a standard glass, add chilled Lemoncello followed by two dashes of bitters. Mix and stir.
- Add 25ml of Pinot Grigio, the remainder of the tonic and finish off with Curacao.
- Optional Garnish: Slice of Grapefruit (to compliment tonic) or Blood Orange (to compliment Curacao)