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Just think of the fabulous spirits on the market today. Subtle tastes crafted and blended over generations. Yet until now the only option has been to drown these spirits with poor quality mixers.
Fever-Tree was launched to change that, an independently owned company dedicated to putting quality back into mixers.
Following a 'tonic tasting' in 2000 to find the best on the US market, Charles Rolls – who had built his reputation running Plymouth Gin – joined forces with Tim Warrillow, who had a background in luxury food marketing, to analyse the composition of mixers. The pair discovered that the majority of mixers were preserved with sodium benzoate or similar substances, while the use of cheap lemon aromatics (like decanal) and, artificial sweeteners (such as saccharin) was widespread – a combination that was affecting the tasting experience and driving customers away from the sector. So, in 2004, they began creating mixers using natural and fresh ingredients.
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, Ginger Ale (using three natural gingers from Cochin, Ecuador 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 500 high quality establishments countrywide.
Internationally, it can be found in six 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.
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, Ginger Ale (using three natural gingers from Cochin, Ecuador 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 500 high quality establishments countrywide.
Internationally, it can be found in six 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.
For 2 consecutive years our Bitter Lemon and Ginger Ale have been shortlisted in the US by the speciality foods association (NASFT). In both cases we were the only drinks on the podium.
In July 2008 we were delighted to pick up Best New Product at ‘Tales of the Cocktail’ – the US’s premier drinks event. Singled out from the whole of the drinks category for having the most significant effect on reinvigorating the classic cocktail.
Most recently we were awarded Cool Brand status (2008/9) – an nomination awarded by an independent panel of consumers and judges based on style, innovation, desirability. There are lots of notes on our Ingredients, and how to mix for perfection (Cocktails) and where to obtain the world's finest mixers (Availability) in this site. And we haven't nearly finished yet. The goal? To enhance the whole experience of the long drink.
In July 2008 we were delighted to pick up Best New Product at ‘Tales of the Cocktail’ – the US’s premier drinks event. Singled out from the whole of the drinks category for having the most significant effect on reinvigorating the classic cocktail.
Most recently we were awarded Cool Brand status (2008/9) – an nomination awarded by an independent panel of consumers and judges based on style, innovation, desirability. There are lots of notes on our Ingredients, and how to mix for perfection (Cocktails) and where to obtain the world's finest mixers (Availability) in this site. And we haven't nearly finished yet. The goal? To enhance the whole experience of the long drink.
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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.
Fever-Tree, Plaza 535, Kings Road, London. SW10 0SZ | Tel: +44 (0)20 7349 4922 | Email: info@fever-tree.com Privacy Policy