Award-winning gin puts fresh hits in the mix

The Australian double act behind award-winning West Winds Gin aren't resting on their juniper laurels. Having picked up a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition for their gin, crafted from native botanicals including wattle seed and bush tomato, they're about to launch their own tonic this winter.

Jason Chan is the man behind the secret recipe; the ''flavour saver'', as business partner Jeremy Spencer dubs him. Chan has previous experience, crafting lemonade and ginger soda for Joost Bakker's Melbourne Food & Wine Festival pop-up bar Greenhouse last year. It seemed a natural progression to create a tonic from all-Australian ingredients, including Victorian lemons, hand-grated ginger from Queensland and WA, and Tasmanian rainwater.

Spencer says that with their growing interest in provenance, Australians are ready for boutique mixers. ''It's all about knowing where your product comes from. When you're spending $12 on a premium gin, you should mix a premium tonic with it.''

With the wealth of sophisticated cocktail bars and restaurants across the country making the most of top-notch spirits, it seems remiss it's taken this long for mixers to follow suit. Several local companies are committed to ensuring the glass is half full when it comes to boutique tonic water and the like.

Daylesford & Hepburn Mineral Springs Co is another company going up against the multinationals.

Brylie Rankine and Mitch Watson, owners of this small outfit in Victoria's spa country, spent many years working hospitality. On moving to Daylesford, they were surprised to find most local bars and restaurants stocked San Pellegrino, ignoring the area's abundant natural resources.

In 2006, they decided to change things, releasing locally sourced mineral water under their own label, followed closely by traditional mixers including lemonade, cola and ginger beer, all certified organic.

''We have small children and we'd seen a lot of flavoured mineral waters that were made with such artificial colours and flavours so we wanted to use fruit juice and make it as natural as possible,'' Rankine says.

Their products have been embraced by restaurants and bars around Australia and as far afield as Singapore and Dubai. Melbourne's Longrain uses their ginger beer in its signature Gin Sin cocktail. Assistant manger Ben Guthrie praises its quality. ''It's organic and local.'' Daylesford is about to release its own tonic water. ''We're just signing off on the flavour,'' Rankine says. ''Everybody that walks into the office gets a little cup of tonic to taste.''

In Britain, Charles Rolls, who successfully rejuvenated the 200-year-old distillery label Plymouth Gin, teamed up with Tim Warrillow in 2005 to create Fever Tree tonic.

Delving back into the drink's history, as a bitter quinine-based ''tonic'' to reduce the fevers caused by malaria, Warrillow, who is visiting Sydney and Melbourne this month for trade events, located one of the world's highest quality quinine plantations, near the war-torn border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The drink, flavoured with the bark of the so-called fever tree, was an immediate success, picked up by the British supermarket chain Waitrose as well as premium bars. In Australia, Coles, Thomas Dux, IGA and independent bottle shops have selected the brand, with bars including Vue de Monde and the Press Club in Melbourne and Black by ezard Sydney on board. Fever Tree followed up the tonic with a ginger beer, made with green ginger from the Ivory Coast, India and Nigeria.

''Ginger is a flavour-enhancer, so it really pulls out the peaty, spicy, smoky flavours in whisky,'' Warrillow says. ''We go and find the best ingredients and produce the best quality product we can.''

Charlie Ainsbury, bar manager of Sydney's Eau de Vie, favours Fever Tree's tonic water, saying the improvement over generic brands is considerable. ''If you taste them side by side, it's obvious. Our customers appreciate quality.''

They also make their own ginger beer, using fresh ginger, lemon and sugar, plus a few secret ingredients he is keeping close to his chest. They use a soda siphon to speed up the natural fermentation process, and get through about 25 litres a week. They also make grapefruit soda. ''There's a real trend of making your own mixers,'' he says. ''You can't compare the quality to that of a bulk mixer.''

Nick Reed, head barman of Melbourne 's 1806, also rates Fever Tree, praising its handcrafted style and quality botanical ingredients. ''Cocktails are our main thing, but if someone's just ordering a spirit, there's no reason why we shouldn't take just as much care with that,'' he says.

''Less-premium product is often a lot sweeter, and that can add to the hangover, or be bad if you are weight-conscious.''

Reed serves the bottle alongside the neat spirit, so customers can choose their own strength.