Bottle sizes for tonic water/club soda

[tinnywatty]

Do you buy your tonic water and club soda in small, individual size cans or bottles? I considered buying a 16oz bottle of Fever Tree tonic water (which has a screw cap), but I'm worried that it'll go flat overnight/ over a few days and the rest of the water will be wasted. Thoughts?

[kimfair1]

We buy the small bottles of tonic for my wife's G&Ts (she likes Schweppes), as we wouldn't use a liter before it went flat. We bought a SodaStream at Christmas, and it's the best thing ever for soda water. One $15 cartridge lasted from Christmas until about 2 weeks ago, and we make soda water nearly every day. It's quick (less than 2 minutes from start to finish), easy, and really cheap (pennies/liter). Cartridges are $30 actually, but when you bring the empties back, you only pay for the gas, hence $15. I wasn't impressed with the syrups you can use to make soda with it, but we bought it primarily for soda water anyway. The other advantage is that I no longer find myself hauling 6 or 8 liters of soda water up to the second floor of my apartment from the car anymore. I like to have a glass of soda water on ice with 4-5 shakes of Boker's Bitters in it. Very refreshing (and a nice adjunct to alternate with cocktails if I'm drinking more than one or two).

[tinnywatty]

Have you tried making your own tonic syrup to add to the soda water?

[kimfair1]

No, I don't use tonic water, and my wife is perfectly happy with the store bought, though I should try one of these other brands for comparison.

[sedimental]

I give a vote for Q tonic water. It is made with agave and real quinine. It is lower in calories, which is a nice benefit. The taste is far superior to anything else I have tried.

I like fever tree too, but it has an orange taste and I don't always want that in my G & T.

[tinnywatty]

Sooo... Bottle sizes?

[sedimental]

I'm sorry, I meant they are similar to Fever Tree. Like Veggo, I also buy them in a 4 pack and the little bottles are about 6 oz each. One small bottle makes 2 G &T's for us, just perfect.

[tinnywatty]

Oh, okay, cool. I ended up buying 365 (Whole Foods) in cans because both the Q and Fever Tree were only available in the large bottles. I figured that cans would be nice since I could just open a new one, but unfortunately there's no way to even try saving the excess, unlike with a bottle.

[JMF]

365 is in no way even close to the quality of Fever Tree or Q. Where are you? I haven't seen Fever Tree in other than small bottles.

[tinnywatty]

I'm in LA. And I'm going to have to look for a different brand, because the 365 is appallingly sweet. No one seems to stock small bottles of Q or Fever Tree, though.

[bg90027]

Both K&L and Bevmo carry Fever Tree by the four pack. I don't personally buy it because I don't think its worth the price (close to $6 for a four pack) but it shouldn't be that hard to find.

[JMF]

If you use so little tonic, splurge on the small bottles of Fever Tree, Fentimans (those two are my favorites), or Q Tonic, and use the best gin possible. Whatever premium gin is your favorite. Otherwise, opened 16-32 oz bottles kept in the fridge will last 3-4 days.

[tinnywatty]

All of the Fever Tree tonic I've seen in my area comes in 16oz bottles. I'll have to keep an eye out for smaller bottles.

[Veggo]

I'm new to discover Fever Tree, and I buy the 200ML 4-packs of tonic and bitter lemon. Pricey, but the stuff almost knocks you out of your chair.

[njmarshall55]

Agreed. I was going to respond to the OP, but since you mentioned it, I'll go here. I think the driving answer is dependent on how much the OP uses. If you go through alot of it quickly, makes sense for bigger bottles. A litle at a time? Smaller bottles indeed.

[INDIANRIVERFL]

I buy the 2 liter bottles and they easily keep a fizz on for 5 days in the fridge when opened. Since I don't have a fridge on my boat, they last 3 days. Here in Florida, we are already in the mid 80s and G&T with a slice of lime is considered a cooling drink, even without the ice.

It helps to put the screw cap back on the bottle after every use. Something my sister consistently fails to do and then complains about flat diet sodas.

[kathleen440]

The smallest cans I can find are 8oz (Polar brand), and even those go flat before I can use it all! Tonic usually goes flat overnight for me.

If anyone ever made tiiiiny 4oz cans, I would be first in line.

[Nocturnalbill]

I have really enjoyed the smaller bottle of Qtonic, largely because they're right at the correct size for two G&T's which is convenient at our place.

[alphanumeric]

I tend to purchase the six-packs (glass bottles) for that reason. I own a couple of unopened liter bottles but I only use them if I'm hosting and know it'll all get put to use.

[Njchicaa]

I buy 1L bottles of club soda at the grocery store 5 for $2. The mini bottles come in a 6-pack for like $4. Just doesn't make sense to buy the small ones. If it goes flat, I just dump the 1L out and open a new one.

[tinnywatty]

How long does it usually take for it to go flat?

[Njchicaa]

2-3 days

[cheesehead in recovery]

WF's canned tonic is good. just paid $2.99 for six pack in cans.