Over the past few years the world has undergone a gin revolution and, in its wake, the classic gin and tonic has seen an immense revival. No longer grandma’s lazy Sunday afternoon summer serve, there isn’t a more ideal or versatile pairing than the G&T.
Being an ideal country to produce gin varietals due to its abundance of natural – and unique – botanicals, South Africa boasts around 130 local craft gins and more than 60 distillers using homegrown flavours such as fynbos, rooibos, buchu, clemengold, blood orange, spekboom and more. Furthermore, global market leaders such as Hendricks, Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire can be found behind the best bars in the country.
Of course, to create the perfect G&T you need a quality tonic water that will accentuate the botanicals of your chosen gin. Tim Warrillow, Fever-Tree CEO comments “The majority of a G&T is the mixer, so the quality of the tonic that you use is really important. Fever-Tree was built on this simple premise, that if three quarters of your drink is the mixer, use the best.”
Fever-Tree was created when Tim and his co-founder, Charles Rolls, noted that premium spirits were growing rapidly, but this movement towards premiumisation had passed the mixer category by, so consumers were left with no choice but to drown their premium spirits with a poor-quality mixer. Fever-Tree put quality back into the mixer category, from the packaging, imagery, style of serve, but nowhere more so than the ingredients themselves. To this day, the company goes to the ends of the earth to source the finest ingredients.
These same trends that drove the Gin and Tonic revolution in the United Kingdom have emerged in South Africa. Tim comments, “We’d seen the huge growth of premium gin in the UK and we followed it’s extraordinary growth here in South Africa. We’re very excited about the opportunities we’ve seen across the whole region.”
The Fever-Tree selection of tonic waters available in South Africa includes Indian Tonic Water, Refreshingly Light Tonic Water, Mediterranean Tonic Water, Aromatic Tonic Water and Elderflower Tonic Water. Using the same naturally-sourced botanicals and highest quality quinine as the regular drinks, the Refreshingly Light variations offer a low-calorie alternative.
The tonic water range is designed to complement the unique botanicals and different flavour characteristics of premium gins. The Mediterranean Tonic Water is made with rosemary and lemon thyme, perfect for citrus and herbaceous gins; the Aromatic Tonic Water is made with angostura bark, pairing well with juniper rich and robust gins; whilst the Elderflower Tonic Water is made with British elderflowers, great for fresh and floral gins.
Tim adds, “Our gin and tonic pairing wheel matches our range of tonics with just about any premium gin you can possibly think of. We’re excited to use this in South Africa given the myriad of great local and craft gins to engage with, and we’re still having fun experimenting and growing our database.”
Fever-Tree mixers are also a great choice for those wanting a high quality low- to no-alcohol by volume (ABV) option and those opting for healthier lifestyles as the drinks are made with the highest quality naturally-sourced ingredients and are free from any artificial sweeteners and preservatives.
Fever-Tree has recently been voted as the No.1 Top Selling and No.1 Top Trending tonic water brand for the fifth year in a row by the world’s best bartenders as part of the Drinks International Annual Brands Report 2019.
For more information on Fever-Tree, please visit www.fever-tree.com. To connect with Fever-Tree South Africa visit us on Facebook /FeverTreeZA.
