Yesterday while at lunch in Farnborough I happened to notice a bottle on the table labelled 'Indian tonic water'. I was told that it is added to gin. I checked the ingredients and there seemed nothing special or different to credit the name 'Indian'. That's when Fr Des shared his interesting experience during his visit to India. On the plane he and his companion got a bottle of gin. Once they landed, they asked in a couple of shops for the 'Indian tonic water'. Every shop he asked, he received a queer look from the shopkeepers. No one ever heard of that before. Fr Des even asked Fr Arul Maran, his host to search and get one for him. But none had ever heard of 'Indian tonic water'.
That's when it struck us that there is nothing Indian about the 'Indian tonic water'.
I guess it is the same with 'Brussel sprouts', 'French fries', 'English Muffins'...
Actually there's an interesting story.. I heard on a Bangalore walk of Lalbagh. We were looking at juniper trees and the guide told us that juniper berries were used to make gin. Then he proceeded to tell us about the famous gin and tonic drink. The whole concept of tonic water seems to have been created for India. During the early Raj days, the white man was usually wiped out by malaria. The cure was quinine and they came up with the idea of mixing quinine in water, especially for the troops. So the tonic water was created. It was rather bitter and generally mixed with gin. Hence the gin and tonic. Naturally, Indians didn't really need to drink tonic water. Only the Brits :D With modern medicine, there is no need to have tonic water any more either.
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