Over the years, I have had to learn to appreciate a number of different cocktail ingredients that had taken on a negative association in my mind after earlier unfortunate incidences from the High School/College I period. As young drinkers we generally learn to drink from people who don't know what they're doing (the first drink I learned how to make was a Purple Fuzzy F*cker); we consume products of dubious provenance and quality, in unrecommended amounts, until we eventually learn (it is hoped) the beauty of quality and moderation. For example, I began a years-long dislike for Tequila after an unfortunate night in Nuevo Laredo that involved me stumbling to a men's room and, upon not finding a light switch or it not working, vomitting into the dark void of the room. Eventually as an adult I learned to appreciate Tequila, and as any Texan worth his salt would, I partake of it regularly.
My mal-association with Gin and Tonic involved a night of highschool hijnx that ended with me waking up at a friend's house, after having been found somehow straddled diagonally between the front and back seats of my 1989 Ford Taurus station wagon with my head resting comfortably in a styrofoam box of Taco Cabana chips & queso. Although my relationship with queso was, inexplicably, not damaged by this incident, I never did regain a taste for Gin and Tonic--that is, not until recently.
A few weeks ago I was talking with Dorsey Barger, the proprietor of Eastside Cafe, about the drinks we like to make with locally-produced Paula's Texas Lemon. She explained how she makes a Gin and Tonic with a PTL floater, in a glass rimmed with Orange Saltburst, from a local company called Spiceburst. (It is sea salt seasoned with orange zest, dried rosemary, paprika.) Dorsey's drink was good, but I couldn't get past the tonic.
Then I met Jordan Silbert, creator of Q Tonic, at the Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans. It was there that I learned that I didn't hate tonic, per se, just that I hated the commercially available crappy tonic. Jordan makes his product from real quinine and agave nectar, not fake quinine and high fructose corn syrup like (just about) everybody else. It is crisp and clean, not gross and ass-nasty; it is truly "super-premium", if such a term can be applied to a non-alcohol component. Back at home, I revisited and revised Dorsey's drink:

Gin and Texas
In a collins glass rimmed with Orange Saltburst, add big rocks and the following:
1 1/2 oz Plymouth or Aviation Gin
Juice 1/2 lime and drop shell
Top with Q Tonic or commercial tonic if you're not in the one state (NY) where Q is available thus far...
Top with floater each of Paula's Texas Lemon and Paula's Texas Orange