The recipe for making tonic water at www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com calls for Cinchona powder however reading the blogs at that site I see everyone is talking about all the trouble filtering out the Cinchona powder. We at Herbal Advantage sell Cinchona Powder but we also sell Cinchona Cut – this is so much easier to filter out using a standard coffee filter. You might notice that Herbal Advantage also sells Citric Acid, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Cloves, Ginger, Orange peel, Lemon Grass, and many other herbs and spices that will make wonderful flavored drinks. Please keep in mind that the more herbs and spices used the more color you will have in the final liquid. Some believe that color and bitterness are related they are not. The color particle is usually the larger size particle and easier to filter out but not with a coffee filter. Removing the color from a liquid takes a mechanical filtration system. The bitterness is from the Cinchona and may be reduced by using less of it. Another suggestion would be to add only the herbs and spices to the water and boil for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the stove, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. After steeping, very carefully remove the lid and without stirring, pour through a coffee filter slowly. This may take several coffee filters to complete. When the filtration is complete add the citric acid and syrup. The longer you boil the herbs the easier it is to burn them therefor I suggest that you only boil for 10 minutes and then steep 30 minutes.
by Amy, on January 13 2011 @ 9:13 pm
This sounds very promising as I am planning to use the Cinchona for making my own Tonic Water. But, I haven’t seen anyone else write about using the Cinchona Bark Cut for Tonic Water. Are you absolutely sure this would be an appropriate form? Has anyone else written about using the cut bark for making a tonic water preparation? Thanks much, Amy
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Hi Amy, Several people complained about how much trouble it was to filter out the Cinchona powder so I suggested using the cut and many have come back to me and said that it worked better. I have also had several “bar tenders”, “mixologist” tell me the cut worked better. The other part about boiling it for only 5 minutes and then covering and steeping it for 45 minutes was my idea taken from the alternative health field where we sell so many herbs that are processed this way. Too much heat will damage the components you are trying to extract from the bark and produce unwanted flavors. Steve
by Duff Howell, on January 17 2011 @ 2:45 pm
Following up my conversation with Steve, a technique that will help do the longer sub-boil steeping it to bring it to a boil for a short time on the active heat and then pour the whole concoction, solids and all, into a thermos. The heat stays just under boiling for quite a while, but you don’t have active heat burning anything, or active bubbles carrying away all the aromatics (there is a similar philosophy with home brewing, where flavor and aroma hops are added right at the end of the boil, so that the (you guessed it) flavor and aroma are not just carried away.
When you’ve let things steep long enough, I also find that the gold mesh coffee filters make (surprise) a good base to hold one or two paper filters when you pour off the liquid. They usually have a flip-up handle, so you can hang the filter over another container and pour through it leaving both hands free for pouring carefully.
by Duff Howell, on January 18 2011 @ 12:36 am
I made my first batch and it is awfully tasty. I altered the recipe slightly – added a dash of juniper berries and a cardamon pod AND…. going back to brewing again… a half tsp of Irish Moss powder. Irish Moss is a fining agent, used in beer brewing to clarify the beer – it grabs protein bits in the wort and helps them clump up and precipitate out – I figured there was very low risk here, and it seemed to pay off – pretty translucent with just a careful pour-off, and even more with just a trip through a gold mesh coffee filter. The first sips, with a bit of agave syrup and a splash of gin, and too good to do anything but sip slowly.
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Thanks for the tip on using Irish Moss to clairfying the tonic. Steve
by Shirley, on June 12 2011 @ 1:50 pm
I would like to make the tonic water substituting the cut bark for the powder bark. What would be the equivalent measure of bark for the 1/4 cup powder?
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If you can do it by weight it would be the same but by volume it could be from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of cut bark to equal the 1/4 cup of powder bark.