Tinker & Tonic

Deliveries are arriving daily

The lab isn't built yet - the space is still being insulated and wall being built. But the ingredients are arriving in droves.

This week: Gentian root. Ginger. Citric acid. Malic acid. Tartaric acid. Potassium Sorbate. Glass droppers. A bunch of bottles. A new scale. and a TON of glass. Drop funnels, beakers, a vacuum pump for filtration.

Tinker & Tonic is a flavor lab. We're building a library of extracts, shrubs, and syrups + tools for creating flavors for drinks.

Right now, it's raw materials in bags and powders in jars. But the work has already getting started.

First Extractions (Percolation Method)

While I wait for the ultrasonic homogenizer, I'm starting slow.

Percolation is the old way: botanicals soaking in high-proof ethanol, gravity doing the work over days or weeks. No super fancy equipment. Just time.

This week's first batches:

Ginger Extract — warming, sharp, the workhorse. We're gonna see how much kick we can give it before it bites back!

Gentian root — bitter backbone, foundation of real bitters.

These will be ready in 2-3 weeks. The first two bottles will be ready for the shelf. (that I still need to build)

Building the Palette

The goal isn't just to make a few extracts. It's to build a palette. A complete flavor library organized by category.

Bitter. Warming spice. Floral. Herbaceous. Earthy. Citrus-adjacent. Dark and rich. Cooling. Smoky. Umami.

Eventually: 50+ extracts in dropper bottles. Shrubs. Oleo saccharums. Acid solutions. Cordials. Everything a bar needs to build drinks nobody else can make.

This is the long game. And it starts this week.