Tonic water

Spice & roots· root bitter

What it is

Tonic water is carbonated water historically dosed with an extract of cinchona bark to guard against malaria in the tropics.

What it tastes like

On the nose: bitter; the house adds dry, citrus edge, sparkling ✳.

Salt and acid

Salt

0 mgAsian pear10 mgCinnamon100 mgFennel seed1,000 mgOlive10,000 mgFish sauce

Sodium 12 mg per 100 g — USDA FoodData Central 171869.

Acid

Acid not measured yet.

Every one of its 1 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

quininetastenitrogen compoundreads as very bitter taste (PubChem)Measured in 2 of 338 ingredients.cite
2.1 to 70.5 mg per L across ten commercial soft drinks and tonic waters, by paper-based fluorometry, cross-checked against a batch fluorescence method that returned 2.6 to 75.1 mg/L on the same samples. The paper's introduction records the regulatory frame as a citation of the rules rather than a measurement of its own: the US FDA limits quinine as a flavouring in carbonated beverages to 83 mg/L, and most commercial tonic waters are reported to contain 25 to 60 mg/L. — Tsaftari et al. 2023, Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) (Table 2 (Paper-based method vs. the batch fluorescence method), 'QN Found (mg L−1)' column, the ten commercial soft-drink and tonic-water samples purchased from local stores)

Sources