Homemade Tonic for G&T's - Chinchona Bark

[Siglapeons]

Have got some rather nice gins and have seen some great recipes for home made tonic. Key ingredient Chinchona Bark. (or at worst quinine powder made from pure Cinchona Bark)...

Any tips on where we could find this in Singapore?

Let us know!

Thks

[JR8]

Ooh that's an interesting question!
I did some digging around and it appears that Cinchona is a controlled product due to it containing quinine. The -ine was a clue since stuff that ends in -ine is often banned/contolled. Something to do with alkaloids I think, '''too good to be legal'''.
See: page 16/25 -> http://www.hsa.gov.sg/content/dam/HSA/H ... v14%29.pdf
which suggests it's banned by ASEAN as a whole.

In tablet form it is a controlled medicine in the UK ->
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ngredients

I can see packs of the bark for sale in Europe via Amazon. And various articles by food writers who describe it's use in home-made tonic water. I couldn't via a quick search see it specifically listed as banned by the SGn government (the above linked is an ASEAN doc, and not a SGn one, though it's hosted on a gov.sg website), but I'd want to be 101% sure that's a legal product in SG before I considered bringing any in.

It's interesting how the recent re-birth of quality gin is also now bringing a search for quality tonic. In the UK it used to be Schweppes, and not the low-cal version, and that was about it, there weren't competitors. Then recently you've seen the appearance of the 'Fever-Tree' brand. Mmm that and Hendricks with a squeeze of kalimansi lime

Are there any boutique tonics available in SG? I haven't rigorously searched, but I haven't noticed any in passing whilst out shopping...

[Siglapeons]

Thanks for that! I have tried a supplier via ali baba that lists they supply the bark..lets see....

for premium tonics avaiable in SIngapore try this..from june 2013..

http://www.catalunya.sg/sites/default/f ... tonics.pdf

[Siglapeons]

this is the homemade tonic receipe i was looking at

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008 ... nic-water/

[JR8]

Hmmm thanks for those, it's really interesting to see how the boutique tonic market is developing.

Of the tonics listed the one from Catalunya seems to be the only one produced in SG, and there is no mention of cinchona being used. Coincidence? I'd perhaps pop down there and give one a go, and try and find out if the bark is used. Dario Nocentini is named as the guy who cooks it up. Their website is down so no further info there, but they do have a Facebook page.

I'd try and reach him and find out if he uses the bark (and he'd suuurely know it's legal status). And if not, does he substitute it with a compensating ingredient?

Let us know how you get on!