Bespoke grapefruit soda and toffee-coloured tonic... London is upping its mixer game

Sunny days demand simple drinks, served long, lightly carbonated and well-iced. That means the mixer is as important as the booze. And sorry, Schweppes, but when it comes to diluting your spirit, there are other players in town. From house-made soda, haute fizzy pop and artisan tonics, London’s bars and brewers are stepping up to the mixer mark.

45 Jermyn Street was home to London’s first soda fountain, so you’d expect staff to know their carbonated bevs. They recommend mixing their bespoke fizz with mescal and passionfruit and thyme syrup, or sipping vodka soda with a dash of elderflower green-tea syrup. At Wringer + Mangle, home-made soda flavours include such super summery selections as fresh peppermint and lime and honey, or you can drink your way to Cuba with a white rum and grapefruit soda Hemingway Collins. The Ivy, meanwhile, spikes its green-apple-flavoured soda with vodka to make an appletini dangerously drinkable.

No hip bar or restaurant is complete without its own house-made take on a famous fizzy drink. At Bala Baya the mixer du jour is gazoz, a Turkish fruit-flavoured drink that the Southwark restaurant makes itself. Its ‘refresh’ mixes quince and fennel gazoz with gin, while vodka lengthened with grapefruit and thyme gazoz becomes a ‘tart’. At Breddos, meanwhile, the Mexican cola — more caramelly and aromatic than Coca-Cola — is house-made using the Mexican sugar piloncillo and cinnamon for a far more delicious take on your average double vodka Coke.

If you’re still after tonic, shake it up with the capital’s cooler purveyors. Fever Tree kicked off the tonic revolution after its co-founder, Tim Warrillow , boss of Plymouth Gin, got sick of mixing his spirits with cheap cloying mixers. Now other indie brands and restaurants are following suit. At Spring, Skye Gyngell makes her own tonics ‘structured like a perfume’, incorporating Mexican orange leaves and jasmine sourced from London parks and gardens. Bermondsey-based BTW’s clean-tasting tonic water comes whisky coloured, as the company uses quinine extract (which gives tonic its tang) rather than an essence, as big brands do.

Cocktail maestro Salvatore Calabrese, who has just opened The Mule Bar beneath The Holy Birds in Spitalfields, namechecks The London Essence Co, which steeps juniper berries in its classic London tonic water to complement the piney taste of gin and uses stevia instead of sugar for healthier sipping. He’s also intrigued by Bon Vivant, a golden tonic syrup using natural quinine, which is mixed with soda water to taste. When it comes to long, boozy afternoons al fresco, it’s just the tonic.