Our boys love anything that glows in the dark. When we found out that anything made with tonic water will glow in the dark (with a blacklight), we thought we would give it a try.
We made red and green jelly and found that the red jelly didn’t work but the green jelly was great. I made the jelly by mixing the jelly mix with 1 cup of boiling water until it was all dissolved and then mixed in 1 cup of cold tonic water. Pour into containers and set in the fridge.
You can also make glow in the dark jelly shapes by pouring the jelly into a baking tray. When s set, cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. To get the shapes out of the baking tray, rest the bottom of the pan in some warm water to loosen the gelatine.
Our boys did have a taste test, but the tonic water is a bit too bitter for them.
Why does it glow?
Tonic water contains an ingredient called quinine and under a black light, quinine absorbs the UV light which is invisible to our eyes. The black light energises the quinine’s electrons who then give off their extra energy as blue light.
In the Lab
Love it. Love all your ideas. PINNED. Thanks
Very cool! Tonic water, how simple.
oooo what a fun idea!!! Anything glow in the dark is instantly kid approved, I think 🙂
I wish our tonic water had enough quinine! I’ve tried this with so many different brands, but no success! What brand did you use?
I used the cheapest brand tonic water I could find. I found that the quality of the black light had a big effect too. The cheap fluro black light didn’t work as well as the more expensive torch-like black light.