What are they doing there
pHenomenal Tonic?
Ginger? Syrup…?
What is that? And why is it supposed to be so good? Isn’t tonic just tonic? And what kind of drink does ginger go with? If you want to know exactly, you’ll find these and other answers in our tutorial. If you still need help deciding, simply order a few bottles from our store and give it a try. Have fun with it!
pHenomenal TONIC
When we started in 2012, the gin & tonic in most bars was a double Gordon’s gin on ice, a wedge of lemon and industrially produced tonic water – topped up or separately in a small bottle.We don’t want to diminish that – it’s a very refreshing drink. Gordon’s is not a bad gin. But why is there always more tonic water than you need in these small bottles, does the “filler” match the high-quality manufactured spirit or worse: why is the tonic from the large bottle always half-stale?
In the course of the rediscovery of cocktail culture, many more interesting gins have been added, such as Hendrick’s, Gin Sul, The DUKE or Monkey 47. If you also use a higher quality tonic, this offers the potential for an extraordinary, or in the case of pHenomenal TONIC Syrup truly phenomenal gin and tonic. There are already a number of premium tonic lemonades on the market. We like a few of them too.
Nevertheless, we decided to take a fundamentally different path at the end of 2012:
Handmade and natural, certified organic ingredients.
pHenomenal TONIC Syrup is the concentrated, natural essence of tonic, handmade by us, which you simply add to premium gin and a good mineral water.
We recommend the following mixing ratios for a pHenomenal Gin & Tonic:
10 cl Classic mineral water or tap water from the soda fizzer.
2 cl pHenomenal TONIC Syrup
4 cl gin
Why is that better?
We make a truly special, handmade tonic syrup – from organic ingredients* of the highest quality and in very limited quantities. pHenomenal TONIC offers a very complex flavor profile. It contains the diverse, characteristic bitter notes of natural cinchona bark, an ethereal note of lemongrass and the full spectrum of different citrus fruits. We sweeten it with organic agave syrup*. There are no artificial ingredients or flavors – we don’t like shortcuts. One bottle of our syrups is enough for 12 long drinks, replacing 8-10 ’boutique tonic’ bottles. That saves a lot of money, but above all a lot of glass.
pHenomenal GINGER
In contrast to the rather mild floral lemonade ginger ale, ginger beer is a drink with a distinctly gingery spiciness. There are different varieties:
- Industrial spicy ginger lemonades, which unfortunately are often neither spicy nor taste of ginger, and are almost all sweetened with plain white sugar or, even worse, fructose syrup made from genetically modified corn. Behind a cloud of ginger extract, they are often spiced up with chilli tinctures.
- Alcoholic ginger beer that has been brewed in England since the early 19th century.
- Homemade “Ginger Beer” from the fermentation of water, ginger, sugar and citrus juice with the help of the “Ginger Beer Plant”, a jelly-like mass consisting mainly of the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii, which form a symbiotic life form.
- As exciting as we find this, unfortunately this route does not lead to a drink that complies with German food law. Not to mention the fact that the bottles could explode during transportation…
That’s why we produce pHenomenal Ginger as a syrup that is only mixed fresh with sparkling mineral water when it is consumed. This saves bottles and space in the fridge and allows the intensity of the finished drink to be precisely dosed. The syrup consists mainly of large quantities of fresh organic ginger juice*, orange juice and is carefully sweetened exclusively with the best organic agave syrup*.
pHenomenal Ginger does not want to be a “morning health ginger shot”, but rather sees itself as a mixer for spirits. Spicy sharpness for long drinks without masking the taste of the spirit.
Also excellent as a non-alcoholic accompaniment to food or as a hot ginger infusion.
Is that art?
We think it’s a craft and a job done lovingly and really well.
*Control body DE-ÖKO 039
pHenomenal NEGRONI, our bow
to the Apperitivo classic (in three versions)
The Negroni is a classic cocktail with a bitter-sweet taste that was supposedly invented in Italy in 1919. A forerunner is the “MILANO_TORINO”, a mixture of the (now artificially) bright red bitters from Milan and red Vermouth di Torino. Adding soda would make it an “AMERICANO”, adding gin would make it a “Negroni”. Named after Count Camillo Negroni, who is said to have concocted the whole thing with his bartender Fosco Scarselli in the Cafe Casoni in Florence. However, there are other, equally credible stories, but that would be going too far here…
Today, most recipes interpret the NEGRONI with equal parts Campari, red vermouth and gin. On the one hand, we think this is rather unbalanced, and what’s more, Campari today is no longer the Campari of 1919. And by the way, there are hundreds of other great herbal bitters or amari, and not just in Italy.
We therefore propose to describe the NEGRONI not by its ingredients, but by what it does. According to this definition, a NEGRONI is a cocktail with an alcohol content of between 20 and 30 percent by volume that strikes a balance between bitterness, sweetness and alcoholic warmth.
Here are our three interpretations:
pHenomenal NEGRONI our style
Juniper, artichoke, wormwood, orange.
We created our first variant in 2017 with an Italian amaro based on artichokes and a house blend of different vermouth wines. We replaced the gin component with the fantastic Eversbusch double juniper from Hagen, because we don’t need any more herbs, but we do need plenty of juniper. Even the orange zest is already included.
To serve, simply pour 6 to 10cl into a tumbler glass over three to four ice cubes (or one large one). Done. Sip slowly and experience the change in texture as the ice slowly melts.
Winner of the Silver Award 2021 from Craft Spirits Berlin.
Alcohol content: 26.1% vol
pHenomenal NEGRONI chiaro
Juniper, gentian, wormwood, mastic, lemon.
Recipes for White Negroni have been appearing in bar literature since the noughties. There, a white equivalent is sought for each of the supposedly original red ingredients. We can almost understand the (very yellow, very sweet) bitter gentian liqueur Suze, but when it comes to Lillet blanc as a substitute for Vermouth, it gets silly.
We prefer to stick to the aforementioned bitter-sweet-alcoholic arc:
The Negroni Chiaro, which we have developed in addition to the Negroni our style, is an approach from a completely different direction with surprisingly unconventional Ingredients. The basis here is a fairly straightforward gin with seven botanicals. The bitter note is a gentian spirit, integrated into a house blend of two vermouths.
Finally, the perfect combination of lemon spirit and a hint of mastic gives this creation its very individual touch. The result is an extraordinary and complex drink with great length – perfectly balanced and ‘ready to serve’. As with our Negroni our style, all you need is a glass and ice cubes.
Winner of the Silver Award 2022 from Craft Spirits Berlin.
Alcohol content: 26.1% vol
pHenomenal NEGRONI organic
At the beginning of 2024, we took up the challenge of composing another ready-to-serve NEGRONI cocktail from completely organic-certified ingredients.
On the way there, we researched and tasted all the herbal bitters and vermouth wines available on the market to finally find a house blend of bitters and a house blend of red vermouth. The orange zest is also already integrated into the NEGRONI organic, here via a hint of triple sec.
Clearly recognizable as NEGRONI, harmoniously bitter, sweet and strong, NEGRONI organic is completely independent and very different from our NEGRONI our style.
The plan worked:
Winner of the Best in Class Award 2024 from Craft Spirits Berlin.
Alcohol content: 23.4% vol
All three of our Negroni variants are ready to serve, making them an excellent solution for serving an outstanding Negroni of consistent quality at home or in restaurants without a designated bartender.
In addition to the standard 500ml size, both are also available in 100ml format as a gift, give-away or for the minibar. From just 50 bottles even with individualized imprint. Get in touch with us.
We are a member of Slow Food Germany
