Tonic Water substitute

Best substitute

Club soda with simple syrup and bitters

6 oz club soda plus 1 to 2 tsp simple syrup plus 3 to 4 dashes bitters replaces 6 oz tonic

Best for gin and tonic

Close match

A rebuild that covers all three of tonic's jobs: carbonation from the soda, sweetness from the syrup, and bitterness from the bitters.

Other tonic water substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Bitter lemon or bitter grapefruit soda
Close match
Use the same amount
These are usually made with quinine like tonic and are already sweetened, so they cover all three jobs straight from the bottle.
What changes
Best for
gin and tonic, vodka tonic, Beton, long drinks, spritzes
The best supermarket swap by a distance. They are more citrus-forward and often a little sweeter than tonic, so the drink tastes rounder and less crisp. Skip the lemon or lime garnish, since the mixer already has plenty of citrus, and go slightly heavier on the spirit to keep it from tasting like squash.
3Club soda or soda water on its own
Different taste
Use the same amount
Carbonated water with a little added mineral salt.
What changes
It covers the fizz and nothing else.
Best for
gin and soda, long drinks where you want it dry, lower-sugar drinks
Worth being straight about: this makes a gin and soda, not a gin and tonic. Without sugar or bitterness the gin's juniper and alcohol are fully exposed, so the drink tastes sharper, drier and thinner. Some people prefer it. Add a lime wedge and a pinch of sugar, or a couple of dashes of bitters, if you want it closer to the real thing.
4Lemon-lime soda cut with soda water
Different taste
1 part lemon-lime soda to 1 part soda water, then use 1:1
The soda supplies sugar, citrus and fizz, and cutting it with soda water brings the sweetness down toward tonic's level.
What changes
Best for
gin drinks, vodka drinks, punches, party quantities
Sweetness and fizz are right and there is no bitterness at all, so the drink tastes like a sweet gin fizz and the juniper gets buried. Two dashes of bitters fixes most of that. Undiluted lemon-lime soda is too sweet on its own and makes the drink taste like lemonade with gin in it.
5Ginger ale
Different taste
Use the same amount
Sweet, fizzy, and with ginger warmth standing in for quinine's bitterness.
What changes
Best for
vodka drinks, light rum drinks, whiskey highballs, punches
It works better with vodka, light rum or whiskey than with a heavily juniper-forward gin, where ginger and juniper fight each other. Expect a rounder, sweeter, warmer drink with none of tonic's dry finish. Ginger beer takes this further still and is spicier and drier.
6Grapefruit juice topped with soda water
Different texture
2 tbsp grapefruit juice topped with soda water to fill
Grapefruit's natural bitterness is the closest thing in an ordinary fridge to quinine, and it brings acidity and a little sugar with it.
What changes
Best for
gin drinks, palomas, tequila and mezcal drinks, alcohol-free long drinks
Genuinely good, and the bitterness lands in roughly the right place. It makes the drink cloudy and pink rather than clear, and it is more acidic than tonic, so it tastes sharper and more like a paloma. Pink grapefruit is sweeter and needs less help; white grapefruit is more bitter and closer to tonic.

What is Tonic Water?

Tonic Water is Tonic water, sometimes labelled Indian tonic water or quinine water, is a carbonated soft drink that is both sweetened and bittered with quinine, which is why it is not the same thing as plain soda water.

Cooking tips

Tonic water is doing three jobs at once and that is why swaps go wrong: carbonation for lift, sugar at roughly the level of a lemonade, and quinine bitterness that balances the gin's juniper. Any substitute that covers only one or two of those will taste noticeably off, which is why plain club soda alone is not a 1:1 swap.
Buy small bottles or cans rather than one large bottle. Tonic loses its fizz within a day or two of opening, and flat tonic tastes syrupy and much sweeter, since carbonation is part of what makes the sugar read as refreshing.
Chill everything, including the glass, and fill it properly with ice. Warm tonic tastes sweeter and flatter, and a half-empty glass of ice melts fast and dilutes the drink. Pour the tonic gently down the side of the glass or over a bar spoon to keep the bubbles.
The standard ratio is one part spirit to two or three parts tonic. If your substitute is sweeter than tonic, such as lemon-lime soda or ginger ale, use less of it and more spirit, or the drink will taste like a soft drink.
Tonic water makes a good tempura or fritter batter for the same reason any carbonated liquid does, since the bubbles keep the batter light. Note that its sugar makes the coating brown faster than a batter made with soda water, so drop your heat slightly.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use club soda instead of tonic water?

You can, but it is not a like-for-like swap and the drink will taste quite different. Club soda is carbonated water with a little mineral salt: no sugar, no bitterness. Tonic is sweetened and bittered with quinine. A gin and club soda is drier, sharper and much more juniper-forward. To bridge the gap, add one to two teaspoons of simple syrup and three or four dashes of bitters per six ounces of soda.

Can I just leave the tonic out?

Only if you are happy drinking the spirit neat or over ice, because in a gin and tonic the tonic is most of the drink by volume. If you have no mixer at all, a gin sour made with lemon juice and a little sugar uses the same bottle and tastes complete, or serve the gin over plenty of ice with a wide strip of grapefruit peel, which gives you aroma and a hint of bitterness.

What is the difference between tonic water, soda water and seltzer?

Seltzer is plain carbonated water. Soda water and club soda are carbonated water with small amounts of added minerals, which give a faintly salty, rounder taste. Tonic water is a sweetened soft drink flavoured with quinine, and it contains real sugar and real bitterness. Seltzer and soda water swap for each other freely; neither substitutes for tonic without added sugar and bitterness.

Is there a low-sugar option?

Yes. Slimline or diet tonic is bittered with quinine in the same way but sweetened with a low-calorie sweetener, so it keeps both the bitterness and the sweetness and works 1:1. The mouthfeel is slightly thinner and some sweeteners leave an aftertaste that is more noticeable in a simple two-ingredient drink. Club soda with a few dashes of bitters and a squeeze of grapefruit is the lowest-sugar homemade route.

Can I make tonic water at home?

You can make a tonic syrup, and the usual recipes use cinchona bark for the quinine along with citrus, sugar and spices. Quinine is a drug at higher doses, so follow a tested recipe exactly, do not increase the amount of bark or the steeping time to make it more bitter, and strain the syrup thoroughly. If you would rather not deal with that, a syrup made from gentian root or a few dashes of gentian bitters gives you a similar clean bitterness with none of the uncertainty.

Does tonic water have much quinine in it?

Only a small amount, added for flavour. It is a soft drink rather than a medicine, and the quinine in it is present at a far lower level than any medicinal dose, which is why it tastes bitter without doing anything else. Treat it as a mixer, not a remedy, and if you have been told to avoid quinine for any reason, use a bitter grapefruit soda or club soda with bitters instead.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Tonic Water substitute

Other tonic water substitutes

2Bitter lemon or bitter grapefruit soda

3Club soda or soda water on its own

4Lemon-lime soda cut with soda water

5Ginger ale

6Grapefruit juice topped with soda water