5 best alcoholic punch recipes

Alcoholic cocktails containing fruit or fruit juice are called punches. These are all-purpose buffet drinks that perfectly complement any party. Depending on the recipe, they can be served cool or hot. We'll look at how to make punch according to the traditional recipe and the best modern variations.

Historical reference. It is believed that punch was invented by English officers who served in Hindustan. The initial version of the drink consisted of 5 ingredients: hot water, rum, sugar, lemon juice and tea. First, in the 17th century, the recipe for punch was brought to Europe by sailors of the English East India Company. The first written memory of punch dates back to 1632.

Classic Punch Recipe

rum – 350 ml;
hot water – 750 ml;
loose leaf dark tea – 2 teaspoons;
sugar – 3 tablespoons;
medium-sized lemon – 1 pc.

Manufacturing

1. Brew tea with hot, but not bubbling water. Leave for 15 minutes and strain.

2. Add rum, sugar and freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon to the tea. Mix.

3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat over low heat for 15 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the heat.

Hot punch is usually served in clay (porcelain) cups or tea glasses with glass holders. It tastes closer to grog - an alcoholic cocktail based on rum.

Having made a traditional punch, you can move on to tests with ingredients and proportions. For example, replace rum with cognac, add honey with spices, fruits, etc. But if wine or champagne is used instead of strong alcohol, then you are preparing mulled wine, not punch.

When creating your own unique recipe, I advise you not to forget the basic rule - punch should not be heated above 70°C, because at the highest temperature its alcohol base disintegrates, worsening the taste.

Cool fruit punch

pineapple, lemon, orange juice – 100 ml each;
sugar – 3 tablespoons;
cherry (raspberry, strawberry) – 10-15 berries;
orange - 1 piece;
lemon – 1 piece;
rum (cognac) – 150 ml.

Manufacturing

In one container, mix all the fruit juices and cognac, add sugar. Cut the fruit into slices (remove the pits from the cherries). Add fruit to juice with cognac. Pour the purchased fruit punch into glasses. It can be cooled by adding ice cubes.

Coffee punch

rum – 0.5 liters;
cognac – 0.5 liters;
coffee – 1.5 liters;
sugar – 400 gr.

Manufacturing

1. Brew strong natural coffee.

2. Pour sugar into an enamel bowl, pour rum and cognac over it, and set it on fire.

3. When hot sugar is one hundred percent dissolved, pour coffee into it.

4. Pour the drink into cups and serve.

Chocolate punch

cognac – 250 ml;
chocolate – 100 g;
sugar – 200 gr;
reddish wine – 1 liter;
water – 0.5 liters.

Manufacturing

Grind the chocolate, mix it in a saucepan with water, wine, cognac and sugar. Heat the resulting mixture to 65°C and pour into porcelain cups.

Egg Punch

water – 0.5 liters;
dark tea – 6 teaspoons;
sugar – 35 g;
egg yolk – 2 pieces;
rum – 100 ml;
nutmeg - to taste.

Manufacturing

Brew tea, infuse it and strain. Beat the egg yolks until foamy, add the yolks along with the rum and nutmeg to the container with tea. This punch is served hot.

2 common recipes for alcoholic punch at home

Classic punch

Ingredients:

oranges (zest and juice) – 2-3 pieces;
lemons – 2-3 pieces;
sugar – 2 cups;
vodka/moonshine 40-45° strength – 1 glass;
water – 500 ml;
dry wine – 1 glass;
black tea – 1 glass;

Manufacturing development:

Grate the zest of oranges and lemons.
Squeeze juice from fruits: a special juice press will come to your aid.
Brew tea, add sugar and citrus juice.
Cook for 10-15 minutes until thick.
Pour the contents with wine and vodka/moonshine, stir thoroughly.
Let the drink brew for about 1 hour.
Serve the drink hot, heated to 60°.

Cool fruit punch

Ingredients:

Juice (pineapple, lemon, orange) - 100 ml each
Sugar - 3 tbsp. l.
Cherry – 10 berries
Orange - 1 pc.
Lemon - 1 pc.
Cognac or rum – 150 ml

Manufacturing development

In a separate container, mix juice and sugar.
Remove the seeds from the cherries, cut the fruit into slices and add to the container.
Add cognac and stir.
If desired, the drink can be cooled with pieces of ice.

Noteworthy facts

India is considered the birthplace of punch.
Some believe that the birth of punch belongs only to English pirates. This is how they kept warm on the ship in the terrible cold.
There is a recipe for the so-called “flaming” punch. Even Alexander Pushkin wrote about him this way: “and the punch is a blue flame.” It received this name because during production sugar was set on fire over the pan.
The very first punch was prepared using wine and brandy (oranges, pineapple and eggs were also added to it).
Punch in the modern world is a legacy of Roman and Greek traditions.
Punch, grog and mulled wine are considered similar drinks, but punch is still more refined and richer.
Regular punch contains only 5 ingredients: this is explained by the fact that the word “punch” is translated as “punch” or “5”.
British bowls, in which punch was served at the end of the 19th century, were considered a luxury item and were a decoration for any table.

Conclusion

If you follow all the tips and advice, a perfectly served and deliciously prepared punch will become a chic decoration for your festive table.

5 best alcoholic punch recipes

Classic Punch Recipe

rum – 350 ml;
hot water – 750 ml;
loose leaf dark tea – 2 teaspoons;
sugar – 3 tablespoons;
medium-sized lemon – 1 pc.

Manufacturing

1. Brew tea with hot, but not bubbling water. Leave for 15 minutes and strain.

2. Add rum, sugar and freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon to the tea. Mix.

3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat over low heat for 15 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the heat.

Hot punch is usually served in clay (porcelain) cups or tea glasses with glass holders. It tastes closer to grog - an alcoholic cocktail based on rum.

Cool fruit punch

pineapple, lemon, orange juice – 100 ml each;
sugar – 3 tablespoons;
cherry (raspberry, strawberry) – 10-15 berries;
orange - 1 piece;
lemon – 1 piece;
rum (cognac) – 150 ml.

Manufacturing

Coffee punch

rum – 0.5 liters;
cognac – 0.5 liters;
coffee – 1.5 liters;
sugar – 400 gr.

Manufacturing

1. Brew strong natural coffee.

2. Pour sugar into an enamel bowl, pour rum and cognac over it, and set it on fire.

3. When hot sugar is one hundred percent dissolved, pour coffee into it.

4. Pour the drink into cups and serve.

Chocolate punch

cognac – 250 ml;
chocolate – 100 g;
sugar – 200 gr;
reddish wine – 1 liter;
water – 0.5 liters.

Manufacturing

Grind the chocolate, mix it in a saucepan with water, wine, cognac and sugar. Heat the resulting mixture to 65°C and pour into porcelain cups.

Egg Punch

water – 0.5 liters;
dark tea – 6 teaspoons;
sugar – 35 g;
egg yolk – 2 pieces;
rum – 100 ml;
nutmeg - to taste.

Manufacturing

Brew tea, infuse it and strain. Beat the egg yolks until foamy, add the yolks along with the rum and nutmeg to the container with tea. This punch is served hot.

Punch (traditional recipe)

Ingredients

Reddish sweet wine – 1000 ml

117 kcal
25 min.
25 min.

Photo of the finished dish

Step-by-step recipe with photos

I will now have a punch according to the German version and with all the traditional bells and whistles for this sacred rite. Without all the bells and whistles, it’s naturally possible to cook the same thing, but it’s difficult.

In European countries, the culture of drinking punch and its recipe differs from country to country, but, perhaps, specifically in Germany it has been elevated to the rank of a real cult! The largest punch in the country (and the whole world) is brewed in Munich, in front of the Isartor gate, in a cauldron 3.5 meters high and 2.5 meters in diameter, 9000 liters each!

At the institutes, hundreds and thousands of students gather before Christmas in the largest auditorium, watch the movie “Fiery Punch,” and as the plot develops, they either shine flashlights, or light sparklers, or drink. hmm. what is being said on the display.

Almost all Germans cannot imagine Advent and the New Year without a fiery punch. Some families have kits for making punch, which are used by more than the first generation.

Read also: Puff pastry baklava

I'll show you how to make a traditional spirit punch, using a kettle from the sixties and seventies that belonged to my husband's family. If you have a choice whether to get an electrically heated pot or one with a burner, then with regard to punch I’ll say absolutely: an electronic one is more convenient, while a burner with a real flame is much more difficult to adjust the temperature. Punch must not be overheated above 70°C. Accordingly, it is better to have a liquid temperature indicator among devices. The Germans often automatically include “sweet tongs” in their kits, which are essentially not tongs, but a chute into which the sweet head is placed. The heads are sold in hypermarkets. Just as sweet tongs are not tongs, so sweet heads are not shaped like heads at all, but cone hats.

The classic punch recipe involves the use of dry reddish wine as the main ingredient. It is seasoned with zest (orange and lemon), cinnamon, cloves, allspice, anise and even gingerbread liqueur. In addition to wine, sugar and spices, you also need high-percentage rum. High-percentage is with a strength of at least 60%. 54%, for example, is not very much - it soaks the sugar, but does not give a measured burning. For 1 liter of wine, they usually take 100-150 ml of rum.

The very first thing you should start with when making a recipe for traditional punch in a special punch bowl is instructions on preservation techniques. The punch burner must be placed on a stone or other non-flammable base. No textiles around, no, God forbid, straw wickerwork or decorative spruce branches, even if they look simply charming. I'll show you why later. Also make sure that there are no tulle curtains anywhere nearby, and that the bowler with punch is not under the chandelier or any overhanging garlands.

Point 2, still a preservation technique: rum is poured only from a ladle and never from a bottle . Otherwise, you risk getting not a New Year's punch, but a Molotov cocktail. If the cook does not have an assistant, then what is needed is not matches, but an electric lighter. Because in one hand you will have a ladle with rum, which will need to be set on fire somehow. And to light matches you need 2 hands.

Well, then. further, in principle, everything is trivially simple. The zest is cut into a spiral from an orange (or lemon, or both). No need to grind.

The zest and a selection of other seasonings are placed in the wine. Just big pieces, no powders. On the burner, the wine with seasonings is brought to a temperature between 60 and 70°C. The temperature must be maintained within these limits throughout the entire production of the punch.

Sugar tongs and a sweet head are placed on top of the pot of warmed punch.

And then the rum is poured into a ladle, set on fire and poured in a thin stream so as to moderately saturate the entire sweet head. Now imagine that you unintentionally spilled a little flaming rum onto the tablecloth. and on charming dry spruce branches. Introduced? Nice illustration? Even if a fire doesn’t happen, everyone at the table will have time to freak out.

But I, of course, wish you successful punch making - and a happy New Year!

When the sweet head burns, your punch will be ready!