Made by Portland women, Dappled Tonic is the Pacific Northwest’s first-ever craft tonic water

Published 1:00 am Thursday, January 8, 2026

It’s unique, useful and delicious.

Take a dabble in dappled Tonic, a woman-owned, craft tonic water brand — the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

Whether enjoyed on its own for a refreshing Dry January treat, or mixed with a tasteful gin, this craft tonic water is a one-of-a-kind product created by a group of women with Portland roots.

Flavors include the “floral,” which has rose, chamomile and lavender, “aromatic,” which has cardamom, vanilla and lemongrass, and “citrus,” which has yuzu, lemon and lime — plus, all three options contain pure quinine.

The triple-threat team of Dappled Tonic managing partners includes Faith Dionne, Erin McBride and Karen Locke.

“ I think that our partnership is a different type of thing that not a lot of people have,” Dionne said.

Dionne, CEO and founder, is a classically trained pastry chef, having worked at Higgins and Aviary restaurants, and founded JAZ Spirits and Bees & Beans artisan candy bars. McBride, CFO, has a background in organic farming and is a former chef, restaurateur and coffee roaster. Locke, CMO, founded an award-winning marketing agency for craft beverages and authored many food and drink articles and a book, among other accolades.

Together, they’ve been in the food and beverage industry for decades in many capacities, from restaurant ownership to food and drink journalism to long-time chef roles at well-loved Portland establishments.

“The three things that define what I bring to market in any of my businesses are: it’s unique, delicious and useful,” Dionne said. “If it satisfies all three of those, then in my mind, it deserves a place on the shelf.”

Dionne has lived in Portland since 2001, when she started her career as a pastry chef. She said she heard about the great ingredients and its food scene that was in its infancy, giving it just the right level of potential to be a fantastic place for her to live and work.

Hailing from Atlanta, at the time, the buzz of Stumptown spread across her city, drawing her into the Rose City full of fruit, wine, nuts and more. Dionne worked all over the country before coming to Portland.

Dappled Tonic started budding with the launch of Dionne’s distillery brand in 2016, JAZ Spirits, which focused on storytelling, place-based, wild, native ingredients for its brand.

“It took literal pains to make my gin,” Dionne explained. She would line up specific glasses and grow her own garnishes to ensure the product was up to par, but then came the commodity brand tonic water pour.

“There was this really big disconnect from me,” Dionne said of the tonic water from the rest of the drink. “That was kind of the aha moment.”

Unable to find a local, craft tonic water brand, and only a few throughout the country, Dionne began thinking about how she could develop one of the right caliber for her cocktails. It also had to be portable for creating beverages at events and be a ready-to-drink, standalone option that people could simply open and enjoy.

“ I know what it’s like to pave your own way in some ways when it comes to finding ingredients,” Dionne said.

She grew up in a small Alaskan town, where the best food was found in people’s homes. There wasn’t much entertainment in the town other than socializing, such as hosting dinner parties. It’s something Dionne started doing in her teens, putting on themed events at her house, including a national historic park-themed party.

“I just understood the beauty in creating a moment,” she said of her teen self.

This carried into her career and how she marketed her services, whether it be the blissful last bite of a pastry to round out a meal, or trying to sell someone on why a $5 candy bar was worth it, over the same old Snickers.

“There are moments in my life that I can circle, and I still think about those things and how they made me feel,” Dionne said.

In October 2023, she started bringing the craft tonic water brand into existence, talking about what the product might be like and how it would happen just by saying it out loud.

By April 2024, Dappled Tonic was on shelves.

Even within the name, the word dappled explores what it means to create a moment.

In one sense, it’s a word that expresses shimmering, transient moments, Dionne explained, relating it to the maple tree covered in shafts of sunlight, which was bound to change within the next 20 minutes of the conversation as the sun set.

“Dappled refers to that and the interplay of highs and lows that we have in our flavor profile,” she said.

Dionne discovered she has a form of synesthesia, allowing her taste buds to connect deeper with her sight, or for some, this means they can taste colors. For her, Dappled Tonic tastes like an interplay of light and dark.

Compared to a standard seltzer water, like LaCroix, Dappled Tonic is “engaging and happening,” rather than standing still.

The three current flavors serve to be standalone drinks and ease the burden of needing to take the whole bar cart on the go.

Headed to the beach? Skip the syrups, liqueurs, limes and lemons, and crack open a Dappled Tonic instead — that’s the goal.

Not feeling like boozing it up? Crack open a Dappled Tonic and sip away.

“It feels as it should be. It feels normal to me. Like that’s how things ought to be,” Dionne said when asked about being the first craft tonic brand in the Pacific Northwest. “ Something that’s nice about the Pacific Northwest is that we are pretty scrappy and we are down to blaze our own trail if we have to.”

Discover where to buy Dappled, alcoholic and nonalcoholic pairing ideas and more online at dappledtonic.com. ]