Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water launched in the UK in early 2005, the brand name chosen due to ‘Fever Tree’ being the colloquial name for the Cinchona Tree in which quinine, a key ingredient for tonic, is found. The highest quality quinine was sourced from the Rwanda Congo border and blended with spring water and eight botanical flavours, including rare ingredients such as marigold extracts and a bitter orange from Tanzania. Crucially, no artificial sweeteners, preservatives or flavourings were added. The highly carbonated tonic, consisting of small ‘champagne’ bubbles for a smoother taste, was packaged in 200ml single serve glass bottles, the perfect size for a double measure gin & tonic; the glass packaging was designed to reflect the premium natural values of the brand and to ensure freshness.
Without a proper marketing budget the company’s future lay in the hands of editorial exposure. A short piece in the national press in the summer of 2005 elicited an instant and positive response. Sales rose dramatically and Waitrose, looking to revamp its mixer category, approached the company to list the product. One month later it was on shelf and Waitrose’s share of the mixer market grew from seven to eight per cent in just one year. Majestic, Oddbins, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason also started selling Fever-Tree, subsequently followed by Sainsbury’s and Tesco in 2008. During this period of success, the Fever- Tree mixer range blossomed to include an award-winning Bitter Lemon, a Lemonade, a Ginger Ale and a Ginger Beer (Both ginger drinks using three natural gingers from Cochin, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria) and the world’s first all-natural lower calorie tonic water. Leading bartenders quickly cottoned on to the benefits of a great mixer; today, Fever-Tree’s premium mixers are available in more than 600 high quality establishments countrywide.
Internationally, it can be found in seven out of the top 10 restaurants in the world (as voted for by Restaurant magazine in 2008). In Spain, the world’s largest premium gin & tonic market per capita, Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water has been immortalised at El Bulli, where world-renowned chef Ferran Adria turned it into a course in itself: ‘Sopa de Fever-Tree tonica’. In the US, the world’s largest mixers market, Fever-Tree was awarded ‘Best New Product’ at the 2008 Tales of the Cocktail awards.
The most powerful endorsements, however, have come from the trade; there is universal support of Fever-Tree’s reinvigoration of the long overlooked mixer sector, a David and Goliath battle against the conglomerate power of the mass market brands. Spirit companies have also been quick to endorse the brand and the Fever-Tree team now work on sampling and co-promotion opportunities with many of the premium companies such as Martin Millers, Belvedere, Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire, Johnnie Walker and Plymouth Gin, driving Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow’s ambition of quality mixers being drunk by every quality conscious imbiber. After all, if three quarters of your long drink is the mixer, then that mixer should be good.
In August our Ginger Beer and our Mediterranean Tonic Water were both awarded Gold star Medals at the Great Taste Awards, a wonderful tribute to the quality and taste of both products.
Our international growth was highlighted in July when we picked up the top prize at the Fancy Food Show in New York, winning the NASFT Sofi Gold for ‘Best Cold Beverage’ for the second year running.
Back in the UK, the Drinks Business Awards were next and we were thrilled to be named ‘Drinks Company of the Year 2011’ – the first time in the awards’ history that ‘Company of the Year’ has been awarded to a non-alcoholic drinks company!
To add to our accolades we were listed 32nd in the prestigious Sunday Times International 100 which recognises the fastest growing, privately owned export companies in the UK. Now sold in over 25 countries worldwide, Fever-Tree was the only drinks company to make it into the top 100.
Officially cool, Fever-Tree has made the CoolBrands list 2010/11 for the third consecutive year. An annual list issued every September; the initiative identifies and celebrates the UK’s coolest brands, canvassing the opinions of experts and consumers to produce a yearly barometer of products. Sitting alongside brands such as Christian Louboutin, Apple, TAG Heuer and Xbox, Fever-Tree has made the list for its pioneering mixers, which have been commended for reviving perceptions of the classic cocktail and enhancing consumer drinking experiences.
And for two consecutive years Fever-Tree’s Ginger Ale have been shortlisted in the US by the speciality foods association (NASFT).
2006 saw our Tonic Water decorated with the title: ‘Best International Gourmet Product’ at the Gastron Festival in Spain.
In July 2008 Fever-Tree were delighted to pick up Best New Product at 'Tales of the Cocktail' – the US's premier drinks event. This award singled the brand out from the whole of the drinks category for having the most significant effect on reinvigorating the classic cocktail. More recently, our Ginger Beer was awarded a 2010 sofi Gold Award for Best Soft Drink – the highest honour in the US speciality food industry.
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Legend has it that the bark of the fever-tree was first used by the Spanish in the early 1630s when it was given to the Countess of Chinchon, who had contracted malaria (known colloquially as the ‘fever') whilst living in Peru. The Countess recovered and the healing properties of the tree were discovered. 
Despite this success its reputation was slow to catch on, it was imported to Europe under the name ‘Jesuits Powder' which proved a very poor selling strategy in Protestant England. Even when Charles II in 1679 was cured of the ‘fever' its popularity was not assured as its use remained the secret of his physician (Robert Talbor).However, the healing power of this remarkable tree only became world renowned in the 1820's when officers of the British Army in India, in an attempt to ward off malaria, mixed quinine (the extract from the bark of the fever-tree) with sugar and water, creating the first Indian Tonic Water.
It was made more palatable when they added a little expedient of gin to the mixture. The original gin and tonic was thus born, and soon became the archetypal drink of the British Empire, the origins of which were firmly planted in the ‘fever-tree'.
But the G&Ts of the Raj were a necessity before becoming a pleasure. Colonialism produced a huge demand for the bark of the fever-tree. In the 1850s the East India Company alone spent £100,000 annually on the bark, but it still brought in nowhere near enough to keep the colonists healthy. The answer was to try and cultivate fever-trees in
the colonies. This initiative inspired intrepid plant hunters across Europe to risk
all and travel to South America to harvest these most valuable of seeds. The Englishman Richard Spruce brought back seeds from Ecuador, which were subsequently grown in India and Ceylon; but they turned out to be of a species
that was relatively poor in quinine.
The Dutch had more luck with seeds provided by Charles Ledger, a British explorer in Peru. Ledger found no interest from the British government, still smarting from its experience with Spruce. However it turned out that Ledger's seeds yielded up to eight times more quinine and subsequently gave Holland a near monopoly of the market.Fever-Tree Ltd have gone back to the roots of this remarkable tree and have discovered the last remaining plantation of original fever-trees descended from the infamous Charles Ledger's Cinchona ledgeriana variety still in existence in the heart of the war torn Rwanda-Congo border. Through adversity the plantation is prospering, having made a reputation for producing the finest natural quinine, (still harvested with traditional methods). Fever-Tree Ltd is delighted to be supporting this remarkable plantation, by using its highest grade natural quinine in its Premium Indian Tonic Water and its Premium Bitter Lemon.