It's a revelation!  I never knew until three days ago that tonic water is sweet!  This explains the extra tasty vodka tonic I had when I was at an extremely interesting photography exhibition in a tiny, tiny izakaya in the Golden Gai area of Shinjuku.  At first, I thought it was the ambience adding to the flavor.  

Golden Gai is a small maze of tiny izakayas (Japanese drinking bars) that are about as large as the average second bedroom of a typical apartment rented in Manhattan.  Seating usually about six or seven people and usually specializing in whatever libation the proprietor favors.  The Golden Gai izakaya also tends to be a bit quirky in that aside from specializing in a particular spirit, they often have keen interests in something else like music or photography. 

I haven't explored Golden Gai in depth because I'm not a big drinker and because it has a reputation for not being friendly to walk in customers.  Rumors and guidebooks usually mention that most establishments require you to be brought by a current patron.  An interesting requirement since these places don't exhibit a high class facade on the outside.  

The place that held the exhibition I attended had seating for about six patron, standing room for four more and boasted of a second floor where the bulk of the exhibit was hung.  After admiring the two photos on the ground floor I  was urged to see the rest of the exhibit before ordering a drink because drinks were not allowed upstairs.  After negotiating the eight-seven degree slope of the stairs I could understand why.  A member of Cirque du Soleil would have been challenged to get her drink safely up and down the stairs sober.  Any person with the slightest impairment from alcohol was seriously taking a risk.

Anyway, the exhibit was great and worth another blog on its own.  The company of the other customers was also stimulating.  The photographer was there and lots of other people interested in art and photography in general. After settling on to a stool it was time to talk and drink.  The proprietor made a few dishes for people.  The person next to me ordered a tofu dish with a spicy apple, red peppper and onion topping that had me salivating.  I ordered my own and was not disappointed.  I also copied the order of another person next to me and ordered a vodka tonic.  It was probably the best cocktail I have ever drank and I initially attributed it to the spirit of what was going on around me.

Now we get to my revelation.  When I was a kid, my family travelled to Vancouver to visit my mom's cousin and her family.  I loved visiting these people.  They have kids my age and the all love to read and have a great sense of humor.  I remember one hot afternoon we came into the house hot and thirsty after playing in the yard.  The adults were sitting around the kitchen table talking and having a drink.  I have always had a large curiosity about food and drinks I have never tried and I will pretty much try anything as long as it is not or was not an internal organ.  I saw two cans of pop (soda for those non-Canadians) that I didn't recall seeing before-- club soda and tonic water.  I asked if I could have one.  My mom's cousin told me the cans were for mixing drinks, not usually for drinking after playing outside.  Still I was curious and she let me try one with the warning that it tasted somewhat like ear-wax.  In my memory I tried the tonic water and found it rather salty, bitter and didn't enjoy the bubbles.  So for years I assumed I didn't like tonic water.  It's only now that I think I tried the club soda.

So when I tried the vodka tonic at the izakaya, I was amazed to find a slight sweetness in my drink.  I asked about the lime and the type of vodka and never assumed it could be the tonic but I did not that the brand was Wilkinsons and was not a brand I remembered growing up with.  I got home and told my husband about the exhibition and the amazing drink.  Determined to reclaim some of the experience, my next shopping trip included the purchase of two bottles of Wilkinson's tonic water. 

I felt really sophisticated buying this (for me) exotic brand of tonic water.  This wasn't your Safeway brand of tonic water that I saw as a kid and was familiar with!  I looked forward to trying to make my own vodka tonic.  Never mind that I still had to buy some vodka and a lime.

My tonic water sat on my shelf waiting for some vodka and some lime until three days ago when I decided I'd like a fizzy drink with my taco salad and didn't want to wait for my husband to come home with a cola. Besides, tonic water was calorie free (or so I thought) and there was no calorie info on the bottle.  I pulled out some lemon juice, a bit of maple syrup (taste sensation derived from doing the Master Cleanse one time--surprisingly tasty) some ice and popped open the tonic water.  I poured it into my favorite glass and sat down.  When i took a sip, I expected a bitter, sour and fizzy drink.  While I got the fizzy I expected, I got a lemony sweetness that I did not expect.  Puzzled but pleased I went to check the bottle.  This was clearly not the tonic water I remembered from childhood.  I began to suspect the vodka tonic was not the taste sensation fluke I believed it to be.

Determined to solve the mystery, I went shopping again and found a tonic water brand I was familiar with.  Still in glass, not a can but with the yellow label I remembered from childhood.  When I got home, I quickly opened the bottle of tonic water and sniffed.  I got a snoot-full of sharp bubbles that had me sniff again more cautiously.  Sweetish.  I took a sip.  

Dang!  The stuff was sweet!  This label had calorie information and I was dismayed to learn that tonic water had 37 calories (per hundred grams or per bottle I can't remember).  I made myself another lemon soda (I still hadn't bought any vodka) and  skipped the maple syrup and still had a nice, tasty and refreshing drink.  So much for low-cal and so much for the memory that I didn't like the bitter taste of tonic water.  At least I discovered something tasty.

Now I am only left with a few questions.  All those years ago, did I really drink the club soda after being scared away by the ear-wax analogy and assume it was tonic water?  And more importantly, how does my mom's cousin know what ear-wax tastes like?  How does one go about acquiring that knowledge?  Does it require first-hand investigation?  Eww.  Or is there a book that has list of equivalent flavors?