Fentimans Botanical Tonic Water
Crafted with botanical care
Fentimans Botanical: 120 Years of Brewing Expertise in a Tonic Bottle
Fentimans does not make tonic water the same way anyone else does. The Botanical Tonic Water uses a traditional botanical brewing process — steeping plant material in warm water, allowing it to ferment slightly, and then blending the resulting infusion with carbonated water and quinine. It is more akin to craft brewing than standard mixer production.
In the glass, this process produces something unmistakably distinctive. The tonic has layers — floral on the attack, herbal in the mid-palate, and a quinine bitterness that finishes long and clean. There is also a very faint yeasty depth from the fermentation process that you will not find in any other tonic, and which gives Fentimans Botanical a complexity that rewards attention.
It is not the most versatile tonic — it is opinionated, and that opinion shouts over some gin styles. But with botanical depth gins, it is without peer. The 8.6 could honestly have been higher for its genre.