According to Winston Churchill, the gin and tonic “has saved more Englishmen’s lives and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.” It was the tonic’s quinine, of course, which did the life saving. Seventeenth century Peruvians discovered that the bark of the cinchona tree (which became known as the fever tree) could be used to treat various fevers. It worked impressively well for not only treating malaria but preventing it as well. As a result it became something of a powerful weapon for the British to rule their distant lands of India. And rule it they did, for almost…
