Quinoa

Cinchona Bark

Eventually it became clear that cinchona bark could be used not only to treat malaria, but also to prevent it. The bark—and its active ingredient, quinine powder. Quinine powder quickly became critical to the health of the empire. By the 1840s British citizens and soldiers in India were using 700 tons of cinchona bark annually for their protective doses of quinine.  Quinine powder kept the troops alive.  Quinine was so bitter, though, that British officials stationed in India and other tropical posts took to mixing the powder with carbonated water and sugar to mask it’s bitter taste. “Tonic water,” was created.

Tonic water was basically a home brew until an enterprising Brit named Erasmus Bond introduced the first commercial tonic water in 1858.  The very same year the British government ousted the East India Co. and took over direct control of India, following the so-called Sepoy Mutiny, a violent rebellion and counterattack. .

British who, every day, had to take a preventative dose of quinine.  It was only a matter of time before the foul tasting tonic was mixed with Gin which was the lower class social decay favorite.  This practice, as Churchhill stated saved English lives and the Empire.