In all cases, good spring water or mineral water is preferable to heavily chlorinated tap water - especially so in the case of Highland and Lowland malts. Fruit Juices Of all the fruit juices, orange is probably the most important for mixing with single spirit shots, most notably with the white spirits that don't muddle its colour. To the cocktail maker, freshly squeezed lemon juice is undoubtably the most versatile ingredient. Additionally, its sourness mitigates the syrupy sweetness of many of the classic liqueurs. Lime juice is yet more sour and is used in drinks that should have a particularly biting tang.
Pineapple makes a sweetly exotic element in some rum-based mixtures.
Sparkling Beverages To achieve the diluting effects of water witout changing flavour, and add a refresing sparkle to a mixture, soda water is the required ingredient. They were charged with tablets of sodium bicarbonate and dispensed a stream of bubbling water through a pressurized nozzle. Nowadays, there is effectively no difference between bottled or canned soda and carbonated mineral water. Tonic water and gin go tongether like Fred Astraire and Ginger Rogers. A sweetened fizzy water flavoured with the bittering component, quinine, tonic is medicinally named for the anti-malarial properties it demonstrated in tropical climes.