"It's my all-time favorite drink. It really clears out the old beak, yes indeed." ~ Koopa Koot

A tasty tonic indeed! At least according to the folks who drank it first.

Inspiration

It seemed rather clear to me that a tasty tonic was going to be some riff on a Gin & Tonic. But how best to represent this particular variation? We turned our eyes to its game of origin and checked how they would make it. Although you cannot cook a Tasty Tonic in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door you can make one in a variety of ways in Paper Mario. The list that follows comes from the Mario Wiki.

• Lime

• Lemon

• Bubble Berry

• Coconut

• Honey Syrup + Yellow Berry

• Honey Syrup + Blue Berry

• Honey Syrup + Red Berry

• Honey Syrup + Apple

• Honey Syrup + Lemon

• Honey Syrup + Lime

• Honey Syrup + Coconut

A Tasty Tonic can be made in a wide variety of different ways. This got me actually pretty excited since I've never tried to make my own 'fruit punch' before. Without further ado, here's how we made it.

The Tastiest Tonic Starts with Fruit

To represent every ingredient that can be used to make a Tasty Tonic, I took some liberties analogizing the more ambiguous ingredients of the game to some real-life fruits, namely:

• Bubble Berry -> Bubblegum

• Blue Berry -> Blueberries

• Yellow Berry -> Starfruits

• Red Berry -> Strawberries

To create the fruity gin which would become the base of this modified Gin & Tonic, I cut up several fruits and submerged them all in gin for about 1 day's worth of time. The infusion took place in a mason jar and included:  

• 1 whole apple that was cored and had its skin removed (skin set aside*)

• 1 lemon, flesh and some zest included (remaining peel set aside*)

• 1 lime, flesh and some zest included (remaining peel set aside*)

• 1 starfruit, flesh included (peel set aside*)

• 2 handfuls of coconut flakes

• 2 handfuls of blueberries (halved)

• 1 handful of strawberries, sliced (heads and leaves side aside*)

• About 3/4 of a bottle of gin (about 550 ml)

*All fruit that was set aside was combined with sugar and left to form an fruity Oleo Saccharum.

** I cut up all the fruits on stream so if you've got an hour to spare, you can follow what I did. 

After a full day of infusing the gin was strained and it took on a mighty red color (which is not at all what it looks like in the game).

It's Not Blue?

Correct! After infusing the gin with all of the fruits above, the strawberry color dominated! If I were to go at this again to make a more game-accurate tonic, I would've forgone the strawberries and gone much heavier on the blueberries to impart a more purple/blue color to the gin. 

The Rest of the Tasty

Armed with a fruity-infused gin, we can continue. But, there are still two ingredients missing from the Tasty Tonic's recipe: Bubble Berry and Honey Syrup. These would be represented by actual honey syrup (made by combining honey and water together) and some bubblegum-vodka that I made for a previous XBar session.  It can be made by letting bubblegum sit in vodka until all of the color from the gum has transferred to the vodka.

In keeping with the image of the game, I tried to get creative with the garnish by dehydrating a very thinly sliced piece of pineapple. When cooked on low in an oven or dehydrated in a dehydrator, the pineapple slices curl up a bit and resemble a flower!

Flavor Analysis

A pungent and biting combination of flavors, and yet at the same time very fruity. There's a tartness present from the lemons, limes, and the strawberries. The slightest hint of tropicalness seems to come from the coconut that tapers on toward the end. The evolution is something of a pointed strawberry switching almost immediately to deep honey notes and bubblegum then lingering on a tart tropical with an almost clean taste.  It's all very refreshing the way that I mixed it. 

I'll acknowledge that depending on your make-up of fruit in your infusion, and how you did your bubblegum vodka, your mileage may vary in tasting experience.