Have a Weird Booze Bottle at Home? Make a Sonic Cocktail.

“I want to expose people to really random, obscure stuff.” William Elliott is the Bar Director of Tigre, a Manhattan hotspot from the same team behind Brooklyn’s Maison Premiere. While the vibe at Tigre is less cocktail bar and more lounge, you’re also going to find some unusual and interesting bottles that fall outside the typically popular whiskey/tequila/vodka/rum variations (that said, they also make a few excellent classic cocktails).

But those bottles may seem a little intimidating to guests. Fear not: Elliott has a simple way to get you into unusual spirits and find new flavors — and do it in a way that’s easy to replicate at home.

Basically, you should use those mysterious spirits to make sonics.

The sonic cocktail is a simple concept to understand. There’s booze, and that booze is topped with a blend of tonic water and soda water. Obviously, a good bar will expand on that concept, much like a great bar can turn something as basic and mundane as a vodka soda into something worthwhile.

Tigre has an entire section of its menu dedicated to sonics. There, the drinks are based on a dominant flavor rather than a spirits category, so you’ll have drinks built around (and named) things like Gentian, Pasilla, Rhubarb, Yuzu and Ume.

We had Elliott walk us through a few of these sonics, which offer more than just simplicity. “These are good low-ABV drinks,” he says. “And with a sonic, I’m just trying to get people to say, ‘I like that flavor.’”

Sonics Are a Good Way to Try Unusual Bottles

“When I’m made aware of new bottles coming to market — things that are a little more on the fringes of public awareness — I’ll find a way to wrap my head around it,” Elliott says. “I’ll take it home and either ‘Old Fashion’ it or tonic it or highball it. They all offer interesting insights.”

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The Sonic Is Better Than the Tonic or Soda on Its Own

At Tigre, they pretty much stick to Boylan tonic. But even then, Elliott prefers to cut it with soda. “I enjoy about every [alcohol] category and tonics,” he says. “But even with a good tonic, a craftily made tonic, it ends up being a little sweet, a little bit caloric and thick on the palate. I’m admittedly not the first person to do this, but I started cutting it with soda.”

Sonics Allow You to Learn More About the Bottle’s Maker

Elliott’s preference with cocktails is to lean into the producers behind the spirit. “It’s where I get my kicks,” he says. “It’s not through culinary innovation or trying to make drinks taste like pizza. A lot of where I find my inspiration is producers and the backstory of the bottle.”

You Can Make a Sonic Cocktail as Complex or Flavorful as You Want

A typical sonic recipe at Tigre actually features five or six ingredients. “It ends up complicated, but hopefully it tastes simple,” Elliott says. Take the Ume Sonic — a sweet yet tart cocktail with floral notes, it features Boylan’s Heritage Club Soda, tonic, Raifuku Shuzo “Ume-shu”, Kurayoshi Distillery “Matsui” Brandy and Akashi “Ume Flavored Whisky,” garnished with micro purple shiso.

Empirical Cilantro — Pretty much anything by Empirical would work in a sonic

Empirical

And Here’s an Unusual Bottle You Can Start With

InsideHook shot some social coverage of Tigre’s Cigarette Martini last year when it became a viral trend. “The first version featured a smoked juniper distillate from Empirical, but unfortunately, Lars at Empirical stopped making it,” Elliott says. “I finally had this trending drink and then I’m not making it anymore. But to their credit, Empirical started making a Cilantro drink, and I think it’s going to pick up momentum. And that’s something that has the potential of just adding soda and/or tonic.”