Crowdfunded Australian Tonic Syrup Blood Moon Is Made for Gin Drinkers

If you’re keen on your gin but not so passionate about the fake flavours that too often creep into your mixer, Karolina Partyka has a solution. She's the brains and brawn behind Blood Moon: an Australian, handcrafted tonic syrup that hit its $10,000 Pozible target in just three days and is now well on its way to a $20,000 stretch goal.

Partyka has spent countless hours in her kitchen, grinding spices with an old-school mortar and pestle and mixing batch upon batch of tonic syrup, to come up with a winning recipe. She's also been digging up some ancient brews — and the rituals to go with them.

Blood Moon is a non-alcoholic, concentrated syrup that's made to be diluted with either soda or still water and then matched with your favourite gin. Its key ingredient is cinchona bark — a 17th century answer to malaria and (most importantly) a natural source of quinine. This is what gives tonic its characteristically bitter hit, one far too often achieved via synthetic means.

According to Partyka's Pozible campaign, one of Blood Moon’s early samplers described it as 'the difference between a single-origin cold-drip coffee and instant'. Not only does the syrup provide quinine as created by Mother Nature, it also delivers a rich, complex flavour profile — and therefore mixes well with tequila and whiskey too.

Three variations will be released: Traditional Cinchona, which contains a combination of cinchona bark, citrus, herbs, spices and floral hints; Australian Native, which is the Traditional blend revamped with native fruits, seeds and leaves; and Unsweetened, which features all the goodness of the Traditional syrup, but without any sweeteners (real or artificial) at all. It's one for the sugar-quitters.

To get yourself a bottle, get on board with Blood Moon’s Pozible campaign, which will run for another sixteen days.