St. John's business hopes to shake up the cocktail industry

The company behind a high-end tonic has branched out from mixing with gin to create a new product to that goes well with small batch Kentucky bourbon. 

Third Place Tonic released Ginger Rose this week to shops, stores and restaurants all across the country. 

"There is nothing like this that has ever been made," co-founder Dan Meades told CBC News.

"We don't have a competitor in the world."

Third Place Tonic launched its take on tonic back in 2015.

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What started out as a holiday gift for some friends quickly turned into a viable business. 

The tonic can now be found all across Canada.

'It's been huge," Meades said.

"Some of the bigger markets have been exactly that for us, bigger markets. Making it able for folks to really get out and enjoy the product."

Rather than sit back and sip on the success, Meades and his business partner Kris Smith set their sights on shaking up the cocktail business.

"If you go into a really great cocktail bar anywhere in the world you can order a really fancy whisky cocktail," Meades said.

"The bartender will spend 15 or 20 minutes, use a bunch of amazing ingredients and given you a really amazing cocktail, but I don't always have a half an hour to make a really amazing whisky cocktail."

'Brand new process to make a great new cocktail'

Nine months of trial and error later and Third Place Tonic came up with something that takes a lot less time but still tastes great.

"Make people a product that people could make a really complex, interesting cocktail at home," said Meades.

"So easy they could do it during the commercial break. We've done all the hard work for you."

Like the tonic, Ginger Rose is a chemical-free product with a long list of ingredients the company gets shipped in to St. John's. 

"We looked all over the world to find the best ingredients we could find," Meades said, "Amazing ginger, rose petals, hibiscus, lapang souchong tea, Szechwan peppercorns."

"We came up with a brand new process to make a great new cocktail for folks at home to do with their whiskies."