Quaffed the Raven

Founded in 1896 on the banks of the River Thames, The London Essence Co. began by creating essences for leading perfume houses. These skills were eventually moved into the drinks industry in 2016, and the company now makes a range of tonics, gingers, and sodas.

The original Indian tonic water is flavoured with citrus notes, including aromatic calamansi, and includes distilled juniper essence.

The London Essence Co. Original Indian Tonic is available in 200ml bottles, and 150ml cans.

Tasting Notes

When first pouring, a good froth of bubbles forms and quickly subsides, leaving plenty of medium to large bubbles clinging to the glass, along with lots of tiny bubbles floating to the surface.

The aroma is dry quinine, with a hint of citrus. It’s unabashedly an Indian tonic water, but there is a warm sweetness there too, hiding behind the very classic notes. Other than that though it’s very much as expected.

To taste, it’s dry but flavoursome, and there are some nice bitter citrus notes to it. I can’t say I get any sense of juniper, but I don’t think it’s meant to be a prominent flavour. There’s very little sweetness, but by no means it is unpleasantly bitter or sour. The flavour is very well balanced, and lasts on the tongue.

With gin (3:1 Beefeater with a lemon wheel), things remain firmly the same. It’s dry, quite bitter, but still flavoursome. The citrus levels are good, but for me there’s not a lot more to it. It’s not the kind of gin and tonic I personally enjoy, but at the same time I can appreciate the quality. I still think the balance is really good, just not to my tastes, if that makes sense.

Overall

The London Essence Co.’s Indian tonic is, in my opinion, a well balanced, quality drink, especially considering the low sugar content. While it’s not entirely to my tastes, and even though I prefer sweeter tonics, I never felt this was actually lacking sweetness, rather that it’s more dry than I would like. Still, there’s nothing about it I dislike, so overall I’m impressed. I would say that if you enjoy a dry G&T then this would be an ideal tonic!

The London Essence Co. Indian Tonic Water is available in shops and online

__

__

_

All reviews are of the author’s personal collection, bought and paid for by the author, unless otherwise stated.