Cooking and Brewing with Our-vadodarians

With this article features, we will try to introduce you to varieties of drinks and food that can be easily prepared with commonly available ingredients.

Espresso tónico:

When one thinks of coffee in the warmer weather, we only think of cold coffee. Iced coffee tastes wonderful — milky coffee at room temperature, less so.

Recently I found a better way of consuming iced coffee when I had a caffeine awakening during the lockdown.  I was introduced to an espresso tónico, an espresso shot mixed with bubbly sweet tonic water. No added sugar was needed — the sugar in the quinine-laced tonic water was sweet enough without it. The best part about this drink is that even if it is not iced it will still taste nice.

Unlike milky lattes that require gadgets to make, preparing a coffee tonic is more accessible. After doing a little surfing over the internet I came to know that versions of coffee tonics appeared at the Sweden-based coffee roaster Koppi in 2007, and they were popularized in several specialty coffee shops in the U.S. by 2015. I would love to get this trend going in Vadodara only two necessary ingredients and plenty of room for experimentation, this is a foolproof summer drink you can enjoy at Work (like we did) or at Home (or Work from Home).

So here are the steps which I took to make this coffee:

Step 1: Start with 250 ml of tonic water on the rocks

Step2: Slowly pour 30 ml Espresso on top (I did not have espresso so I used instant coffee instead). If you pour too fast it will overflow.

*I have used sugar as my colleagues love little extra sugar in their drinks*

Step 3: Enjoy!

Using instant coffee does change the taste of the drink, but I personally feel that it tasted good. In this video, I have used Jade Forest’s tonic water which I ordered from amazon, but you can also use Schweppes tonic water which is available in Spencers and a few other shops in Vadodara

The order of ingredients does matter — to a point. 

Pouring the blended coffee tonic over ice versus pouring the espresso slowly on top of the ice-filled tonic did not dramatically change the flavor when I made it. But pouring espresso right into tonic did.