Tonalicious Poolside Gin

Colour is the first thing Poolside Gin shows off: the gin shifts shade as tonic is poured in. Tonalicious Spirit Co makes it in Adelaide, bottling it at 42% ABV in 700 ml bottles, and at the 2026 World Gin Awards it was named Country Winner, with gold, in the colour-changing ginColour-changing ginGin tinted with butterfly pea flower, whose pigments shift from blue to pink when the acidity of tonic or lemon lowers the pH.Glossary category. The judges described a complex gin with woody spice and floral notes, and found the change of colour a delightful addition.

Woody · Spicy · Floral

The distillery behind it is unusual. Tonalicious was founded by DJ Kerrie Campbell, known behind the decks as L'il Miss K, and the engineer Frank Buechele, and it works from a small site in Adelaide. Before distillation, its botanicals go through an acoustic sonicator, which breaks them down with sound waves in a cold process that Kerrie compares to cold pressing; the house calls the method Sonic Dissipation. Each batch is also bottled with a Spotify barcode that links to its own soundtrack.

Juniper anchors the recipe, and the palate moves from spicy warmth to floral and woody notes while the colour develops in the glass. Poolside sits alongside the distillery's other award winners: Lucky 13, a gin paired with a house music playlist and named best South Australian gin at the Australian Distillers Awards, and Rogue Tom, a richer Old TomOld TomAn 18th-century English style, lightly sweetened or rounder, halfway between genever and London Dry. It is back in favour for classic cocktails.GlossarySee Old Tom gins that took gold at the World Gin Awards.

As the name suggests, it is made for a long, cold drink in the sun. Fill a highballHighballA long drink served in a tall, straight glass with plenty of ice: a spirit topped with soda or tonic. The word also names the glass.Glossary with clear iceClear iceIce without air bubbles, made by slow, directional freezing. Denser, it melts more slowly and dilutes less.Glossary, pour in 4 cl of gin and add 10 cl of Indian tonicIndian tonicThe classic tonic: sparkling water, bitter quinine and sugar. The name recalls colonial India, where quinine warded off malaria.Glossary slowly, so the shift of colour can be watched. A ribbon of cucumber and a wheel of lime keep it fresh without masking the spice.