Gin, ice and a splash of tonic—the G&T is an evergreen favourite, but what happens when you shift gears and go beyond the basic? Here’s how to switch up your gin and tonic to legend status.
I’m always impressed with how a gin and tonic can be appropriate at any point of the day and at any time of year. Rain, hail, wind or blistering sun, as a nightcap, pre-dinner aperitif or an easy lunchtime tipple, a good G&T is a wonderful thing.
There’s something about the bitter-sweet sharpness and fizz of the tonic coupled with all the different notes of the gin that make a gin and tonic an easy go-to drink.
With the gin’s full of herbal flavours or citrus heavy, juniper-forward or packed with lifted floral notes, and finished off with a clever garnish, you can really make a G&T go a long way.
In fact, you should probably check out our story on what makes a perfect gin and tonic.
But once you’ve supercharged your G&T with the best matching tonic to the gin and have gone the extra yard with garnishes and glassware, what else can you do?
Here are 3 ways to really put your G&T options into overdrive.
1. Add Something Extra To Your G&T
Of course, the easiest way to mod a G&T is to add an extra layer of flavour to it. Increasing citrus flavours and sweetness with triple sec works really well with the over all tastes you get in a G&T, and you can also play with the garnishes too.
- 45ml gin
- 15ml triple sec, for example Byron Bay’s Triple Sec or Marionette’s Orange Curacao
- Tonic to top up
- Garnish with a strip of orange peel and a small sprig of rosemary to bring out the citrus and herbal and citrus flavours.
Add the two spirits to your glass filled with ice, stir to mix and top up with tonic.
You can try other additions too, like Tanica’s No.2 - Desert Lime and Thyme spirit.
2. Change Out The Tonic
Although we’re talking primarily about gin and tonic, there’s nothing to stop you changing it to a gin and something else. Gin and soda has become a very popular option recently, especially if you’re trying to avoid sugar.
But how about making your G&T into a gin mule?
- 50ml gin
- 2 lemon wedges
- ginger beer to top up
- sprig of basil to garnish
Build your gin mule as you would a G&T, just topping up with ginger beer rather than tonic water. Squeeze the lemon wedges into your drink and drop them into the glass and place the basil sprig on top.
The sweet herbal notes of the basil marry so well with the spicy sweetness of the ginger beer, and the lemon adds freshness.
Using a powerful gin like a navy strength gin like this one from Mt Uncle’s Botanic Australis range will boost the intensity of the drink.
You can also try something with amped-up flavours like Never Never Distillery’s Juniper Freak.
Alternatively, using a gin like Stone Pine’s Lemon Drop Gin, which has delicate yet bright citrus notes (also great in a G&T by the way), means you probably don’t need to worry about squeezing the lemon wedges and just having one as a garnish.
3. Shift Flavours On Your Gin
Just because it’s a G&T doesn’t mean it has to be standard London dry style gin. There are a million options these days, from barrel-aged to shiraz-infused gins. But using a fruit-forward gin like sloe gin will add a completely different edge to your drink.
- 50ml sloe gin like Brookie’s Sloe Gin
- 15ml lemon juice (strained)
- top up with your favourite tonic
And you don’t have to stop at sloe gin. You can try some of the other unique gins infused with Aussie fruits and botanicals like Anther’s Cherry Gin that macerates thousands of hand-pitted Australian cherries, or Kangaroo Island Spirits’ Mulberry Gin.
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