Is National Gin and Tonic Day the same as International Gin and Tonic Day?

No. The American day is April 9, while International Gin and Tonic Day is a separate global observance on 19 October, and World Gin Day is a third day on the second Saturday in June.

Who started National Gin and Tonic Day?

The drink's own history is documented from an 1858 London patent onward, but the April 9 observance is not: no founder, proclamation, or registration has been identified for it. The earliest dated US coverage of the day is a Metro US article from 9 April 2018.

Was the gin and tonic really invented as a malaria cure?

Quinine, the bitter compound in tonic water, was genuinely used against malaria, and it was often taken mixed into alcohol rather than as a cocktail. But Kew's researchers say the idea that the gin and tonic itself was drunk in the tropics as an anti-malarial seems to have arisen as a 20th century legend, and cocktail historian Anistatia Miller rejects the ration story outright.

National Gin and Tonic Day

Next celebratedFriday, April 9, 2027

Partygoers at an 1868 horse race in British India called for gin and tonics and cheroots, the drink's first known appearance in print; American drinkers now keep a day for it.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 4, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 9

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYFood

SUBCATEGORYAlcohol

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

~2018

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A drinks-page day with no author on record.

No founder, proclamation, or registration documents the creation of the April 9 observance. The earliest dated evidence that it was being kept in the United States is a Metro US article published on 9 April 2018.

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INTRO

Tonic water's patent lapsed three years before the first gin and tonic

National Gin and Tonic Day honours a drink whose mixer was patented, then allowed to lapse. In June 1865 the London Gazette printed a list of British patents that had become void, and number 1207 was on it. The reason was an unpaid stamp duty of £100.

Patent 1207 belonged to Erasmus Bond, a mineral water manufacturer, and Kew records that it was Bond who patented tonic water under that name in 1858. He let the patent go in the seventh year. The first known written record of anyone calling for a gin and tonic does not appear until 1868.

The American day itself has no such paper trail. What it has is a drink whose documented past is stranger than the story usually told about it.

ORIGINS

Gin and Tonic Day history

INTRODUCTION

Quinine was a fever medicine long before anyone drank it for pleasure. It comes from the bark of the Andean fever tree, whose curative properties Kew dates to South America in the early 17th century.

That history is why the gin and tonic is usually explained as a colonial anti-malarial, invented in India and drunk by British troops. Kew's researchers went looking for that drink and found the origin legends hard to verify in the historical record.

CHAPTER 01

A digestive that sold slowly

Tonic water began as a business proposition, not a prescription. On 11 June 1858 the London Gazette listed patent 1207 to Erasmus Bond, a mineral water manufacturer of Wharf-road, City-road, for an improved aerated liquid. That October he gave notice of his intention to proceed.

The notices never say quinine and never say tonic water. Kew records how it sold: as a digestive and general tonic rather than a fever medication. It did not immediately become popular.

CHAPTER 02

A race meeting, not a ration

The first written record of the drink is not medical. Kew traces it to the Oriental Sporting Magazine in 1868, where partygoers call for the cocktail and cheroots at the end of a horse race. Kew calls that typical of Victorian G&T drinking, a refreshment in hot weather.

The military version has been challenged head on. "The gin and tonic was not invented in India as an anti-malarial," Anistatia Miller of Mixellany Limited told Smithsonian Magazine. "British troops did not drink it as part of their rations."

The case is not closed. A 2022 review in Le Infezioni in Medicina reads the evidence the other way, presenting quinine as a prophylaxis for British seamen and soldiers, its bitterness masked by gin. Kew says only that the notion of the G&T being drunk in the tropics as an anti-malarial seems to have arisen as a 20th century legend.

CHAPTER 03

An American day with no author

The observance itself is much later and much thinner. No founder is on record for the April 9 date, and a search of the Federal Register returns nothing under the day's name.

What the day has instead is the drinks press. Metro US published "Celebrate National Gin & Tonic Day" on 9 April 2018, the earliest dated American coverage located, malaria story and all.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Quinine used to prevent malaria

Scottish physician William Balfour Baikie used quinine on a Niger expedition to prevent malaria rather than treat it afterwards.

Bond patents an improved aerated liquid

The London Gazette recorded patent 1207 to Erasmus Bond of Wharf-road, City-road, described as a mineral water manufacturer.

Pitt's tonic water goes on show

Pitt's aerated tonic water, the first patent tonic water, was illustrated in the International Exhibition's industrial catalogue.

First tonic water cocktail on record

By this year adverts for quinine tonic waters had appeared across the British colonies, and in Hong Kong a tonic was paired with ginger brandy.

A gin and tonic reaches print

The Oriental Sporting Magazine caught partygoers calling for the cocktail and cheroots at the end of a horse race in British India.

American press marks April 9

Metro US told readers that day was National Gin and Tonic Day, the earliest dated US coverage of the observance located.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Gin and Tonic Day by the Numbers

83 ppm: US legal quinine limit in tonic
About 65 ppm: Quinine measured in two US tonics
648 mg: Quinine per dose, FDA malaria course
300 years: Cinchona as the West's only malaria treatment

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Gin and Tonic Day

MAKERS

Nearly eight times the bottlers, about 46% less gin bottled.

The number of US industry members bottling gin for the domestic market rose from 108 in 2012 to 841 in 2025, according to Treasury filings. Over the same years the gin they bottled fell by about 46%, to the lowest volume in the published series.

LABEL

Federal law makes tonic water declare its quinine

Federal rules let quinine into carbonated drinks only as a flavor, and require every label to carry a prominent declaration of it. That declaration may sit in the product's name or stand as a separate statement.

EMPIRE

The bark behind the mixer moved with empire

Cinchona seeds and plants went from South America to plantations in India and Java between 1850 and 1865, with Kew central to the transfer to India. Kew describes quinine and the cinchona tree as having become a vital tool for the control and expansion of empires.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Gin and Tonic Day

Taste tonic water on its own first

Pour a small glass of tonic and drink it before it meets any gin. The bitterness is quinine, the alkaloid drawn from the bark of the Andean fever tree.

TRY

Try the 1863 pairing instead of gin

The earliest tonic water cocktail Kew has traced was made with ginger brandy, not gin. Swap the spirit for one round and taste what came first.

VISIT

Visit a distillery that bottles its own gin

Hundreds of American plants now bottle gin for the home market, so the odds of one within driving distance are good. Ring ahead and ask whether they pour tastings.

READ

Read the 1858 patent notice yourself

The London Gazette has scanned the page recording Bond's patent for an improved aerated liquid. It takes about a minute and costs nothing.

PUT

Put the other gin days in your calendar

International Gin and Tonic Day falls on 19 October, and World Gin Day lands on the second Saturday in June. Neither is the same observance as this one.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Gin and Tonic?

1 / 8

Where does the quinine in tonic water come from?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing located, so April 9 is a normal working day, and a search of the Federal Register returns no document naming the day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

16sources

10primary records

13independently dated

Primary records

The Gazette1858-06-11

The London Gazette, Issue 22152, Page 2883

The patent list granting number 1207 to Erasmus Bond for an improved aerated liquid.