It would be remiss to write about the story of punch without consulting drinks historian, David Wondrichs excellent book, Punch and indeed the authority himself. The following references Davids book but also quotes from a gathering of punch experts, including David, brought together around a punch bowl by Banks Rum. For our video and more from that enlightening session see our Punch – Expert tips on how to make and serve page. But I digress, back to story of punch and its origins.
Punch (Punsch in German) refers to a mixture of several fruit juices and spices, often with wine or liquor added and mostly topped with champagne or sparkling wine. Punch is popular in Germany and with many Germans who emigrated to America.
British sailors bring punch to London
Punch helped sailors survive the long voyages due to the citrus in the punch protecting them from scurvy. When they returned to the London ports, due to being over-provisioned often they brought back some arrack from the East Indies and other punch ingredients with them. It became very fashionable to visit the docks and drink a bowl of punch with the sailors. Investors would visit the ships theyd financed with their friends and sit onboard enjoying this new communal beverage.
During the mid-1600s, after the Restoration, punch made with arrack from the East Indies, and then rum from West Indies became the fashionable social beverage in Londons coffee houses, then the new gathering places. And as Wondrich says, “with all that caffeine, you need something to come down on a little.” For the coffee house owners, punch was very attractive as was not taxable, it was so new it lay outside the taxation system.
Punch remained the tipple of choice for English aristocrats for hundreds of years to come. The spirits, tea, sugar, citrus and nutmeg used were expensive ingredients with the lemons alone then equivalent to eight dollars each. In 1690s London a three-quart bowl of punch cost half a weeks living wage. Punch bowls started becoming an accessory to acquire and show off. There are accounts of the ostentatiously rich commissioning punch bowls large enough for three children to play in and melting down coinage to make them.
Rum became the most popular choice for both Englands punch-guzzling aristocracy and for its sailors. As soon as England colonised sugar producing nations, The Royal Navy were quick to swap the daily allowance of a gallon of beer or pint of wine for half a pint of Jamaican rum. Not only did this smaller portion take up much less room on board but it didnt spoil on the long journeys. As rum was being produced throughout Englands new-found territories, from New England in America to Mauritius off the coast of Africa, it made its way back to Londoners then struggling to buy the French brandy theyd been used to as England waged its constant wars against France and Spain. When the ships docked from the Caribbean, as William Dampier wrote in his book of 1697 A New Voyage Around the World, they were “always well stored with rum, sugar and lime juice to make punch, to hearten their men when they are at work.”
In the tropics themselves, as Jeff Berry writes in his introduction to Potions of the Caribbean, “Rum mixed with sugar and lime made the nasty, brutish, short life of the average Caribbean combatant worth living.” Despite movie franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean depicting Caribbean cutthroats swigging straight from bottles of rum, such 17th and 18th century ruffians preferred a bowl of rum punch. There are countless tales of merchant seamen being lured with punch only to find themselves surrounded by pirates. Indeed, it was the infamous Captain Kidd who negotiated a privateer contract over rum punch with the then commander-in-chief of Englands Caribbean forces.
The punch they drank is possibly known today, as pointed out by Richard Zacks in his book, The Pirate Hunter which cites an eyewitness to this meeting in 1688. The punch was supposedly made of “rum, water, lime-juice, egg yolk, sugar with a little nutmeg scrapd on top.”
Origins of the name punch
Popular belief has it that name punch originates from the Hindi word for five, a reference to the traditional number of ingredients: sour (lime or lemon), sugar, spirit (rum, brandy or arrack), water and spice (nutmeg).
David Wondrich says, “One guy said it comes from the Indian word for five because it had five ingredients. Unfortunately, that guy was only in India for a little bit and it was a guess. He never talked to any Indians about it and punch has six ingredients, it has four ingredients, it has a bunch of different ingredients so Im less trusting of that judgement than some other people because it also means something short and stout, much like myself, and the barrels that everybody put in, they take a half barrel, which was like a punch barrel, it turned into a punch. Punch was the description of the barrel and thats how youd serve it so I suspect it came more from the barrel than from the Indian word but thats my guess.”
Davids theory as regards the barrel is supported by a style of cask, 500 litre short and broad in shape, being called a Puncheon to this day. Tellingly Punchons are most identified with the rum industry.
But as David also says, “But who knows. Most of the people who were drinking early punches were sailors and most of them were illiterate.”
Its not known who made the first punch or where that punch was made but even David Wondrich, the leading American author on the subject, agrees that it was likely to have been a Brit.
The first known written reference to punch appears in a letter sent on 28th September 1632 by Robert Addams who was stationed in India and worked for the British East India Company. Writing to a colleague about their respective accommodation and company he wrote, “I hop you will keep good house together and drincke punch by no allowance.” [from Punch by David Wondrich page 22]
The first recorded punch recipe dates from 1638 when Johan Albert de Mandelslo, a German managing a factory in Surat, India recorded that the workers there made “a kind of drink consisting of aqua vitae, rose-water, juice of citrons and sugar.”
Spirits werent the refined products we enjoy today and the new and cheap tipple, rum, courtesy of Britains colonial interests tended to be fiery stuff. Punch emerged as a way of taming rum.
Wondrich picks up the tale, “Punch began in the British East India trade, as far as we can tell. Records are pretty spotty about this sort of thing, but English sailors ran out of beer and they ran out of wine, and you cant have a boat full of English people without something to drink. So, some bright spark had the idea, what if we make artificial wine from spirits. Once they got to East Asia and South Asia everybody there was drinking spirits; spirits were widely available – Batavia arrack in Indonesia and coconut arrack in India, and somebody said okay, lets take that and lets turn it back into wine, and how do you do that? You put the acidity back in thats been distilled out, so you use lemon juice; you sweeten it to balance that – they liked sweet wines back then – and I think, most importantly almost, is you dilute it back, you put the water back in, so you end up with something thats about the strength of wine. You can make this artificial wine with things that are on the shelf, that will keep forever or are locally available and its delicious. This starts in the early 1600s with these British merchants.”
RUM PUNCH | Caribbean Recipes
FAQ
What classifies a drink as a punch?
What is the difference between a punch and a cocktail?
What are the 5 components of punch?
What is the basic formula for punch?
How do you make a rum punch?
Add light rum, dark rum, pineapple, orange and lime juices, and grenadine into a shaker with ice, and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a Hurricane glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a maraschino or brandied cherry. The Rum Punch is a thirst-quenching cocktail, but also a representation of one of the oldest styles of cocktail ever created.
What is a rum punch cocktail?
The Rum Punch Cocktail is a tropical delight that will transport you to a sunny beach with just one sip. Made with a combination of white and dark rum, pineapple, orange, and lime juice, and a splash of grenadine, this cocktail is a perfect blend of sweet and tangy flavors.
What drinks make good punches?
Cocktails that make good punches include fruit juices, wines, and sodas. In other words, recipes with more nonalcoholic ingredients than liquor. Recipes like the planter’s punch that already have “punch” in the name are often good candidates for a party.
How do you make a cocktail punch?
Cocktail historian David Wondrich adapted this punch from an antique recipe. It fuses cognac, rum, port and Grand Marnier with strong-brewed black tea and oleo saccharum (the sweetened oils of lemon peels). In short, it’s not for the faint of heart. Assemble this lightly caffeinated bowl, and let your guests top each serving with soda or Champagne.