Iceland may be a small nation, but it punches well above it’s weight in terms of gin. In others words, there’s a lot of good gin being distilled in Iceland. Glacierfire is the first craft Icelandic tonic maker, and Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water is one of six(!) in their lineup.
Firstly, all of Glacierfire’s tonic waters are sugar free. They use sucralose. The quinine is sourced from Africa and their water comes from Icelandic Langjökull glacier melt. The water also gives Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water a pH of 8.88.
The berry that gives Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water its berry flavor is the Cloudberry.
Tasting Notes
The nose immediately suggests berry to me. Fake strawberry flavor hits you at first, and for the most part— that’s all that’s there on the nose alone.
The palate is subtle early. The mid-palate is dominated by the bursting sweetness of sucralose. Towards the finish, there’s a hint of fruitiness. This time it’s a bit more jammy with intimations of raspberry preserves. A slight bitterness is there, but Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water is only subtly tonic-like.
Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water and Triple Juniper Gin
I mixed this tonic water with Never Never Distilling Co.’s Triple Juniper classic style gin. The strawberry is still present on the nose, but this time its surrounded by robust fresh juniper. It’s a nice counterpoint. Together, it almost reminds me of Brockman’s Gin.
Sipped, the juniper takes over the palate. There’s a modicum of bitterness on the finish, but again it’s subtle. Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water adds only a slight hint of berry here. While that alone is nice, in this variant I find the sucralose to almost be the dominant botanical of the tonic water.
Overall, Glacierfire Berry Tonic Water
While fruity, berry-flavored tonic waters are not without precedent, Glacierfire somewhat comes up short here. People looking for a low calorie berry flavored tonic water may find enough to like here. Others will find the relative slight bitterness and the overpowering sucralose on the mid-palate to be a bit underwhelming.