Part one of the story of the cocktail’s ancestor: Punch. A tale of distillation, alchemy, exploration and conquest.
O’Doherty’s Arrack Punch recipe
Ingredients:
- 6oz Batavia Arrack
- 4oz dark rum (Recommended: 50-50 mix of Smith and Cross and Plantation Barbados 5-year)
- 2oz strained lime juice (about 2 limes)
- 2oz demerara sugar
- 14oz water
- whole nutmeg
Preparation
Dissolve sugar in 2oz boiling water. Add arrack, rum, lime juice and 12oz cold water and stir. Serve with ice and top each glass with fresh-grated nutmeg.
Source: Wondrich, David. Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl. Perigree, 2010. Page 120.
Episode In Pictures
Recommended Sources:
- Wondrich, David. Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl. New York: Perigree, 2010.
- Turner, Jack. Spice: The History of a Temptation. New York: Random House, 2004.
- Milton, Giles. Nathaniel’s Nutmeg. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1999.
- Robbins, Nick. The Corporation That Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational, 2nd edition. London: Pluto Press, 2012.
- Ehmer, Kersten and Hindermann, Beate The School of Sophisticated Drinking: An Intoxicating History of Seven Spirits. Greystone, 2015.
- Stewart, Amy. The Drunken Botanist. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013.
- Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005.
- Gately, Iain. Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol. Gotham Books, 2008.
- Phillips, Rod. Alcohol: A History. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
- Carlin, Joseph M. Cocktails: A Global History. London: Reaktion Book, 2012.
