It’s not easy to be a healthy drinker.
When I needed to cut carbs out of my diet, it meant cutting down on my consumption of beer. I used to be pretty much a beer ‘n’ wine guy, depending on whatever I had for dinner. Italian food? Wine. Chinese, Indian? Beer. BBQ, pizza, American? Well, either, really.
When I wanted to maintain variety and not drink wine every night, I figured I could work in some cocktails into the rotation, since I also enjoy having a drink while I cook as well as matching a drink with my meal.
So I learned which whiskeys I like, and how I like them (rather simply) with water or seltzer and a little lemon.
But I also love tonic water – the sweet/sour flavor of it, as well as that hard-to-pin-down quinine flavoring. I prefer gin to vodka, so gin & tonics have served as a nice drink to have now and then….
…. but while I found various gins that I like (and I can get giant Tanqueray bottles at Costco, yay!), it’s been the tonic water that has been the bane of my existence.
Why?
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.
Yes, the EVIL that is HFCS turns up in nearly EVERY brand of tonic water. I’d totally cut out soda from my diet to help with weight loss. And regardless of what the science is behind cane sugar versus high fructose corn syrup, I’m willing to settle with the mere FEELING that HFCS is WAY worse for my metabolism than regular cane sugar.
And I can tell the difference in flavor – Mexican Coca-Cola, made with cane sugar, tastes superior to the HFCS version normally available.
And judging from the way they market Mexican Coke as well as other cane sodas, I’m not alone.
So where is the cane sugar tonic water?
For a while, Trader Joes sold a tonic water under their own label with cane sugar – and then stopped, those BASTARDS.
There’s a cane sugar tonic water made for Whole Foods – it’s not bad, but it’s pretty sweet, and my G&Ts have a candy-esque quality to them/
Recently I discovered Fever Tree tonic water – it’s a little pricier even when found in the supermarket or Target or Wal-Mart, but it uses lower amounts of sweetener, doesn’t use HFCS, and doesn’t overwhelm the flavor of the gin or lime I add to my G&Ts. So I’d highly recommend the stuff.
I’m tempted to try their other mixers now. And considering how cheap & set in my ways I am, that’s saying a lot.
Jim Berkin 