"mixers" news and stories

Q Tonic Water

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Jul 5th 2007 @ 12:12PM

Q Tonic Water is for when only the best is good enough. There are very few premium mixers on the market, especially tonic water. Now Q Tonic Water is joining the select ranks of premium tonic waters. I got some pre-production samples a few months ago and tried it and found it was very good, but a little on the sweet side. I spoke with the creator, Jordan Silbert, the President of Q Tonic, who spent over four years developing Q Tonic, at first in his New York City kitchen and then later with the help of a food scientist. Jordan said that the final version would be less sweet and have more tang and tartness and he was right.

Recently I received the final product and it was excellent. The taste is very clean, dry, and simple. It's a real tonic water made with natural ingredients and no synthetics. It has a the nice bitterness of real extract of ground cinchona tree bark from Peru (not a synthetic quinine), with a hint of sweetness from organic agave syrup from the Jalisco region of Mexico (none of that nasty High Fructose Corn Syrup), and a tang of tartness from lemon extract which brings it all together.

Filed under: Raves & Reviews, Trends, New Products

Diet mixers increase alcohol absorption

COMMENTS 3

by Nicole Weston, Posted May 26th 2006 @ 11:06AM

It's important to drink responsibly, so those who have been using diet sodas as mixers to cut calories in drinks might be interested to know the results of a new study. Australian scientists compared the rate of absorption for sugar-sweetened alcoholic drinks to artificially-sweetened drinks (like vodka and coke versus vodka and diet coke, for example). They found that artificial sweeteners led to a higher rate of alcohol absorption by the body, meaning that drinkers felt the effects of the alcohol more quickly and more strongly than those who used sugar-sweetened mixers. Drinkers who had "diet" mixers had a greater concentration of alcohol in their bloodstream and would feel more drink, even if they had consumed the same amount of alcohol with a sweetened mixer.

Scientists worry about people's health because of this finding. When the mixers used to make drinks are "diet," people tend to drink more because they know that the calorie count is lower. When drinking, it is better to try to keep track of how you're feeling than simply the number of drinks you've had. And if you want to watch calories, try following every drink with a large glass of water. It's calorie free and will probably have you feeling much better in the morning.

Source

Filed under: Newspapers, Health & Medical, Ingredients, Drink Recipes

High-energy mixers

COMMENTS 0

by Nick Vagnoni, Posted Jan 20th 2006 @ 10:14AM

I've never been a fan of using energy drinks like Red Bull as a mixer. Sure, I've downed a can here and there to stay awake during long drives, but the idea of prolonging the act of drinking a foul beverage by mixing it with something like vodka is beyond me.

While browsing BevNET, a beverage industry trade site, I noticed a few newly reviewed energy drinks that actually seem designed to play second fiddle to alcohol. A line of soft drinks called Jet Set Energy comes in mixer-like flavors including club soda, ginger ale, tonic water and "original." The latter hasn't been reviewed, but the red can leads me to believe it may be similar to a cola. The silhouette makes me think strip club, but the background is all Merry Melodies. Of the three that BevNET did review, the ginger ale got the highest marks.

Another similar line that fared much better with BevNET's reviewers was HiBall Energy. They too have tonic water, club soda and lemon-lime, as well as a berry flavor and an orange flavor. All are clear, unsweetened and chocked full of caffeine, taurine and, as an added bonus, B vitamins.

[Image: BevNET]

Filed under: Magazines, Drink Recipes, New Products