How 'Gin & Tonic' Became The Accidental Cocktail

Winston Churchill once quipped that “Gin and Tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives and minds than all the doctors in the Empire.”

And it actually wasn’t a lie.

There are few drinks that sound as colonial as the gin and tonic. That cool clink of ice, the squeeze of lime, the unmistakable bitterness that creeps up at the end — it’s a drink that feels as British as afternoon tea. Except, of course, it isn’t.

The gin and tonic, the drink that took over India in the last few years, was actually born right here in India — and not at a swanky club, but in the sweaty, mosquito-ridden camps of the British Raj.

A Brief History

Let’s rewind to the early 1800s. The British had arrived in India armed with ambition, but also a staggering vulnerability to malaria. The disease wiped out more soldiers than any battle could, until a miracle compound quinine came along — extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree in South America. It was effective, yes, but also unspeakably bitter.

To make it drinkable, army officers began mixing it with sugar, soda water, and gin — the spirit they already had rations of.

By 1825, this medical hack had become a ritual. The officer’s sundowner wasn’t just a cure — it was ceremony. The “tonic” took the edge off the tropics, the gin lifted spirits, and together they turned colonial survival into another colonial artefact, stolen from us.

Of course, gin itself has a much older backstory. But by the time it met quinine in the subcontinent, the pairing made perfect sense. The bitterness of medicine met the bite of gin, softened by citrus and sugar. And then, voila, a drink was born. Malaria or not, everyone wanted one.

A Brief Slowdown And Then A Comeback

But here’s the irony. Tonic water — once the defining colonial export of the subcontinent — was eventually abandoned by it. As Schweppes launched “Indian Quinine Tonic” in the 1870s, it wasn’t India making or drinking it anymore. The Empire moved on; the drink became global. And for a while, we stuck to our whiskies and Old Monks.

Until now.

Fast-forward to modern India, and the gin renaissance is in full swing. Craft distilleries from Goa to the Himalayas are redefining what gin can taste like — herbaceous, floral, citrusy, spicy. We have everything from Stranger & Sons, Hapusa, or Vanaha.

And riding that wave is a new generation of Indian tonic makers who’ve turned the old colonial chaser into something distinctly homegrown, refreshing, and frankly, cooler than ever.

Here are a few that actually deserve your glass:

Sepoy & Co.

The OG of the Indian craft mixer game. Made in small batches with natural quinine, Sepoy’s tonics are clean, crisp, and well-dressed. Their low-sugar, small-batch tonics come in flavours like elderflower, mint, and grapefruit.

Svami

Mumbai-born and everywhere now, Svami first started pushing premium mixers into bars across the country, especially with their Light Tonic Water and Grapefruit Tonic.

Bengal Bay

Bengal Bay, on the other hand, leans into botanicals — infusing Himalayan spring water with orange peel, cinnamon, and cardamom for a tonic that tastes distinctly Indian.

Some drinks are invented by bartenders. Others by accident. The gin and tonic was created by empire, disease, and a desperate need to make something bitter taste better. But two centuries later, we’re still pouring one out — only this time, it’s not for the Empire, but for ourselves.