They are the ever-present item in all thrift shops, a dusty box lurking somewhere between the Nana Mouskouri records and the bad art.聽
Hiding in vintage, chafed cardboard with a wondrous and colourful image on the cover.聽
Inside you鈥檒l find the gems themselves: the beautiful big bowl, the glorious etched cups and, if you鈥檙e lucky, a ladle, stand and cup hangy thingamadogers.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, the punch bowl.
I can鈥檛 begin to tell you of my love for punch. There are so many forms from low to no to high alcohol content, and tons of variations on mix and the spirits. Rum punch, bourbon punch, gin punch, tequila punch鈥� you get the drift.
Punch actually comes from the Sanskrit word for 鈥渇ive鈥� as there were originally five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, water, lemon and spices. It is said to have been invented as an alternative to beer and it first made its way from India to England by sailors; the first recorded history of punch was in 1632, according to some reports.
The favourite tipple of Charles Dickens, punch has circled the globe in its variations. The Deep South loves bourbon punch. England is known for variations with wine, cider or Pimm鈥檚. The infamous Planter鈥檚 Punch hails from the Caribbean. There are more variations to be found, especially in Chile, Germany, Korea, Mexico and Sweden.
With Halloween, Chanukah, Christmas, solstice, New Year鈥檚 and all of the in-betweens fast approaching, it鈥檚 time to get your punch on. I love punch at parties as you can offer both a zero proof version and one with full octane. A sneaky way of turning up or down the volume on your fiesta is by adding more or less alcohol to the punch as the night goes on. The other benefit is that you don鈥檛 have to constantly be mixing up cocktails for your guests. They can self-serve quite happily and interact with other invitees. The punch bowl is to parties as the water cooler is to the office, albeit much more enjoyable.
Many excellent punch recipes can be found online, but if you want to really get in to this wet mess of fun, I highly recommend David Wondrich鈥檚 book Punch: The Delights and Dangers of the Flowing Bowl. In it you鈥檒l find history, lore and recipes from one of the best booze writers in the biz.
Here are my tips for winning party punch:
Ice: Very important! You want to use a big block of ice that will melt slowly as the party heats up. My mom taught me to use different sizes of margarine containers or jello molds (no one makes aspic anymore 鈥� ew! New purpose!). Make the punch ahead of time and as soon as the first ding dong sounds, drop in your block of ice.
Booze: Vodka schmodka 鈥� go for something with flavour instead. This is when you can raid that liquor cabinet and see what it yields. Cachaca from that trip from that trip to Brazil? Gillespie鈥檚 Sin Gin? Calvados? Be creative.
Mix: Fruit juices, ginger beer, kombucha, soda, sparkling wine鈥� you name it. If you add fizz, do it at the last moment so it doesn鈥檛 lose its effervescence.聽
Fruit and floating fun: Pieces of pineapple, orange segments, mint leaves, edible flowers are all possibilities. Be creative. Nothing is more beautiful than those exquisite little cups with vibrant colour and floating d茅cor.
I would love to know what kind of creations all you budding bar chefs come up with. Email me your punch recipes at [email protected] so I can share them.
