This Good Question comes from reader, Kristen, just in time for party season: I'm throwing my first holiday party for some close friends and colleagues soon and was wondering if any readers or contributors at The Kitchn know of a great holiday punch to make for my guests. Thank you!
Kristen, there are so many great recipes to chose from! Delicate champagne punches, fruity tropical punches, hot, spiced rum punches, to name just a few. I can recommend two in particular that I've tried recently, and I'm sure our readers will have lots of other tempting ideas to share.
The first is Thieves' Punch (pictured above, left) from Food & Wine Cocktails 2009 (the book was reviewed here earlier this year).
A heady mix of white rum, tawny port, fresh lime juice, sugar, and bitters, this punch has a rich and spicy taste and a cheery reddish-amber color that make it a wonderfully festive pick. The tawny port flavor really comes through in this recipe, making it a good choice for pairing with cheese and dried fruit.
Thieves' Punch (adapted from Food & Wine Cocktails 2009)
makes 8 drinks
16 ounces white rum
5 ounces tawny port
10 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
5 ounces simple syrup
20 dashes Angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher (or, if making larger quantities, a punch bowl) and stir. (You might want to do this a few hours ahead of time and set the mixture to chill in the fridge.) When ready to serve, add ice* and strain (from pitcher) or ladle (from bowl) into glasses or cups.
Another seasonal possibility is a Spiced Apple Punch (pictured directly above, and top photo, right). A mixture of applejack, fresh apple cider, lime juice, grenadine syrup, seltzer, and spices, this one has a slight effervescence, a sweet, apple-y taste and is a little lighter on the alcohol.
Spiced Apple Punch (adapted from The Merchant Hotel Bar Book, Volume 2)
makes 8 drinks
10 ounces applejack (I used Laird's blended, but you could also substitute bourbon, or for even more apple flavor, a straight apple brandy)
10 ounces fresh apple cider
4 ounces fresh lime juice
3 ounces grenadine syrup (storebought or homemade)
simple syrup (to taste - I left this out)
4-8 ounces club soda or seltzer (set aside)
cinnamon sticks and whole cloves
apple slices (for optional garnish)
Combine all ingredients except seltzer in a pitcher (or, if making larger quantities, a punch bowl) and stir. (You might want to do this a few hours ahead of time and set the mixture to chill in the fridge.) When ready to serve, add club soda and ice* and float in some apple slices. Strain (from pitcher) or ladle (from bowl) into glasses or cups.
*A Note on Ice
Bigger is better. Because regular-sized ice cubes tend to melt quickly, a large block of ice is a great way to keep a large bowl of punch from getting too diluted and warm over the course of the evening. You can make your own super-sized blocks in plastic food storage containers in the freezer. (I'll be experimenting with these and posting my findings in next Friday's column.)
Anyone else with a favorite punch recipe for Kristen?
Nora Maynard is a longtime home mixologist and an occasional instructor at NYC’s Astor Center. She is a contributor to The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries and is the recipient of the American Egg Board Fellowship in culinary writing at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow. She previously covered food and drink in film at The Kitchn in her weekly column, The Celluloid Pantry.
Related: Recipe Review: Hot Rum Cow
(Images: Nora Maynard)
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Last weekend, I put some Trader Joe's apple cider in the crock pot with a couple cinnamon sticks, some clove, ginger, and nutmeg powders (would have used whole if I'd had it), and some strips of lemon and orange zest. A few non-imbibers drank it just like that, and the rest of us added apple schnapps and Barenjager (honey liqueur) and it was so tasty!
That concoction is also delicious with some currant-flavored vodka.
My favourite drink when we check out German Christmas markets is "eierpunsch", or egg punch. I am still searching for the best recipe (there are many different versions), but this one seems good. (I am hoping to find one with rhum or egg liqueur).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eierpunsch
Another option is some sort of mulled wine: glühwein, glögg or other such drink...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine
I love the Poinsettia cocktail... just cranberry juice, grand marnier orange liqueur, and champagne. It's light and festive tasting and super easy!
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink1494.html
I've been making Martha's Champagne punch for years - the original recipe serves 2, but it's easily multiplied.
3 T grenadine, 3 T Cointreau, 2 T brandy, 1 3/4 cup Champagne, raspberries. Mix and add ice. (3.5 cups = 1 bottle Champagne)
As far as ice goes, an even better idea is to layer the bottom of a bundt pan with fruit slices and cherries and then fill the rest up with water and freeze it. Run hot water over the outside to loosen the ice ring, and leave that to float in the punch, all decorated with fruit. Very nice, and doesn't water down the punch much at all.
I LOVE milk punch. It's expensive to make (maybe most good punches are?) but so delicious and luxurious. Plus it tastes better if you make it a few days in advance.
I use a Brennan family/Commander's Palace recipe clipped from an old '96 Food & Wine: Whisk tog 1/2c vanilla extract 1c sugar 2c hvy cream 4c milk 1-1/8c bourbon nutmeg. Chill & serve. Make sure it's excellent vanilla and same on the bourbon.
Also, there was a great article on punches in Saveur around this time last year. It included quite a few interesting recipes too. The Regent's Punch ("a tea-infused champagne punch") in particular piqued my interest.
http://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and-Drink/With-Glasses-Raised
http://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and-Drink/Regents-Punch
Uh-oh, all my " " signs between the ingredients went away. Not sure why.
Plus signs! Aargh.
I absolutely second the Commander's Palace Milk Punch. It's extremely delicious.
One punch I made for New Year's a few years ago involved bourbon, grapefruit juice, and mint. Dunno if that sounds good or not to you, but everyone loved it. A little too much, maybe; it packs a punch:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/Bourbon-Punch-with-Pink-Grapefruit-and-Mint-240765
(No pun intended.)
Mulled beer, anyone?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mulled-Beer
Lambswool variant in particular is awesome.
According to my father-in-law, the secret to a delicious (and strong) punch is peach schnapps. Having tasted the results, I have to agree.
For our last Christmas party we mixed Knudsen's Cider and Spice (or something like that, it's pre-spiced and particularly tasty) and Laird's Applejack and put them in one of those big coffee things with a spout to keep warm. It was perfect, piping-hot and self-serve! I'll be doing it again in a couple of weeks.
It's kind of cheating, but IKEA (sometimes) and some other Scandinavian specialty stores often carry liquid glogg mix. Glogg is a spiced alcohol/wine mix very popular around the holidays in Scandinavia. Just add a bottle of red wine or some vodka to the mix and heat. Last year I made some for a party with a bottle of actually quite bad cabernet (I believe it was Yellowtail) and a half a bottle of pomegranate cranberry juice. The juice watered down the insanely strong wine and it was delicious!
In Europe there's only one punch for the holidays: Mulled Wine! I never saw it available at bars / restaurants when I lived in North America, but it wouldn't be Christmas without it.
Here's a recipe I'm dying to try:
http://cheesecloth.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/mulled-wine/
Make traditional hot apple cider (alcoholic version) with extra cinnamon sticks and add a half shot of calvados per glass before serving - even better than mulled wine!
I hope this doesn't get any apprehensive sidelong glances, but this is a family "punch" recipe that came about after a bit of holiday panic. But it certainly predates our discovery.
One year, we had a tough Thanksgiving in the kitchen. Among the many problems we had, we were out of room in the fridge and freezer. In the chaotic shuffle in and out of cold storage, a gallon tub of rainbow sherbet that was to accompany desert was left on top of the fridge. I don't know for how long.
We were also without any prepared beverages as guests started to arrive, so we dumped the partially melted sherb into a fancy crystal punch bowl and filled it with ice and 7-up.
Yes, it was terrifyingly sweet. So in future concoctions, we tried to move away from the super-carb version. Club sody works okay. Diet 7-up does not.
Mixing up the sherbet can also work, but it's better to get one of the marbled variety so that the flavors mix together as it runs into the liquid. One year we used a box of off-brand pineapple-coconut-tangerine that was terrific, but we could never find it again.
It's important to let the sherbet melt a bit at the beginning to get a good start. And take out a number of scoops that people can ladle into their cups. Of course, you can add liquor.
Google "sherbet and sprite" and you'll get some other variations.
Happy Holidays
@mauselous: ha! Jimmy Fallon just did that rainbow sherbert punch on his show last night! And Rachel Maddow made David Wondrich's milk punch in the same segment.
Your comment (and the time you posted) made me think that you saw the segment as well and it somehow triggered your memory.
Squirt (Grapefruit Soda sold in Mexico), Tequila, Lime Juice, Slices of Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit & Apple. Served in a bowl rimmed with salt (Salt flakes are recommended).
I forgot to mention it is served cold. I prefer large chunks of ice!!
You cannot fail with my Mom's percolator punch. The ingredients are a bit odd (the look I got from a friend when I poured in the the pinapple and cranberry juice last week!) but the punch is wonderfullly yummy and sends the most AMAZING plummy holiday scent all through the house.
In a percolator you will never again use for coffee, combine
9 cups cranberry and 9 cups pineapple juice with 4 cups water. In the basket you'd usually put the coffee grounds in add 1 cup brown sugar, 4 tsp whole cloves, 4 cinnamon sticks and 1 tsp whole allspice. Plug in and perc normally.
Seriously, try this. It keeps well in the fridge after perking, too!
I made a yummy punch with sorbet (raspberry, mango and blood orange), ginger beer, club soda, pineapple juice and two bottles of champagne. I took my immersion blender to the sorbet and juice before adding the fizzies. Drank from fancy teacups, just because.