8! Botanicals – Gin and Tonic Cocktail Kit

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

For your cock­tail delight and edu­ca­tion, 8! Botan­i­cals presents eight nat­ur­al fla­vor­ings and a com­pan­ion recipe book­let to upgrade your G&T expe­ri­ence.

• Juniper—gin wouldn’t be gin with­out it, and an extra help­ing from this kit brings the liquor’s resinous, near-flo­ral notes to the forefront. 
• Star anise adds gen­tle, licorice-like sweet notes in your drink. 
• Cin­na­mon bark tum­bles you from sweet to spiced notes and brings out the dark­er berry notes in gin
• Cloves—just a few at a time — take you the extra mile to bal­ance out the remain­ing mellowness. 
• Corian­der seeds lift up your evening con­coc­tion with a lit­tle cit­rus hit. 
• Green car­damom, that prince of spices, cools heat­ed fla­vors down. Gin’s no chai tea, but you’ll feel the same sort of refreshment. 
• Pink pep­per­corn​’s piney notes play well with juniper — and bring a light berry sweet­ness into the mix. 
• Dried chili pep­pers take you into a bold final act. Slide one or two of them into your glass for a beau­ti­ful­ly smokey afterburn.

PREPA­RA­TION

Herbs and spices are well-loved friends in the kitchen, but at the bar, they’re gem­stones we’ve only just begun to dis­cov­er. Gin and tonic’s a clas­sic cock­tail: bright, zesty, and refresh­ing at any time of day, it wel­comes the addi­tion of herb and spice fla­vor notes with open arms. Our local ARC Arch­i­pel­ago Botan­i­cal Gin is brim­ming with potent botan­i­cals of its own, a show­case of cit­ric, fruity notes from all over the Philip­pines. We splash in Fen­ti­mans Nat­u­ral­ly Light Ton­ic Water—this vari­ant has its own light juniper notes — to make our gin and ton­ics. With the fla­vors burst­ing out of the 8! Botan­i­cals kit, your night­ly G&T becomes an entire­ly fresh expe­ri­ence every time.

FOR THE HEALTH OF AN EMPIRE

“The gin and ton­ic drink has saved more Englishmen’s lives and minds than all the doc­tors in the Empire.” This ring­ing endorse­ment came from Win­ston Churchill him­self. British col­o­niz­ers on the Indi­an sub­con­ti­nent used the bark of the South Amer­i­can cin­chona tree — a dis­cov­ery by the Span­ish in what is now Peru — as a treat­ment and pre­ven­ta­tive for malar­ia. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, qui­nine, the active ingre­di­ent in this bark, is very bit­ter and they had to dilute it in sug­ar water to make it palat­able. Thus, ​“ton­ic water” was born. When the new health drink became com­mer­cial­ized and was mar­ket­ed to British expats in India, it was only nat­ur­al that they mixed it with gin to refresh them­selves in the humid trop­i­cal climes.

Storage Instructions

Store in a cool dry place.