Some bartenders create new beverages by playing around with different liquors, juices and garnishes until they come up with a certain taste. Restaurant Eve's Todd Thrasher takes what you might call the mad scientist approach.

One recent Saturday afternoon found him behind the bar at Restaurant Eve surrounded by pots and beakers, straining dark, viscous liquids through napkins. He was brewing his own tonic water -- the secret ingredient for Jose's Gin and Tonic.

Read that again: He was making his own tonic water. From scratch.

Thrasher doesn't work as a bartender -- his official titles include general manager and sommelier -- but in his spare time, he invents some of the most quirky and delicious cocktails in the area.

"I worked at Cafe Atlantico for about six years," Thrasher says, "and [chef] Jose Andres always . . . complains and moans about how Americans make gin and tonics -- we use too much water, we use too many ice cubes, we mess it up completely every time. So I said one day I'm going to make you a gin and tonic."

And what's the most important part of this quintessential summer beverage? The tonic, of course.

"So I started messing around and looking for quinine. My grandmother told me that when she was a kid, they had quinine pills for everything, so I started looking for them. I thought what I'd find would be a refined white power."

He pulls out a large brown bag. "Unfortunately," he says, laughing harder, "what I got is dirt." Opening the bag, he shows me the raw quinine -- a grainy brown powder. "It looks like dirt, it tastes like dirt, it's absolutely horrific."