Note: This book is sold out! Some of the material is included in my book Doctors and Distillers, due out in July 2022!
In the meantime, two books on tonic that I love are Just the Tonic [amazon][bookshop] and Something & Tonic [amazon][bookshop]
The extraordinary and hilarious history of one of the world’s most popular cocktails!
Tonic Water: AKA G&T WTF by Camper English.
This is a deeply researched but lighthearted look at the history of the Gin and Tonic from 1630 to today, including:
- How a misunderstanding of disease led to the discovery of quinine.
- The history of carbonated water and where pig bladders come in.
- How in Little House on the Prairie, “Ma” thinks you get malaria from eating watermelons.
- How quinine was responsible for the invention of the color mauve.
- Why the military threw cats out of airplanes on Borneo.
- How Ginger Rogers’ great-great-great grandfather made his fortune.
- Perhaps the earliest print reference to the Gin & Tonic in India.
- How the Spanish Gin & Tonic renaissance is due to ice machines.
- Where Dr. Seuss fits in with the history of the drink.
The book contains 35 hand-drawn illustrations from one of the great artists of our time. Just kidding! I drew them all so they’re pretty terrible. Click on that page to pull up an illustration of a cat with a parachute.
Tonic Water AKA G&T WTF is a short version of an ultra-epic book of the same history I hope to publish a couple years from now. Support your local tonic water historian!
Purchasing Info
Digital Version:
The book is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle. It should be available for sale on all international Amazon sites as well. It costs $4.99 US and the equivalent in international currency.
Get it on Amazon USA here, or on these international Amazon sites:
UK Germany Spain Netherlands Japan Brazil