planters_punch_cocktail

Time for a Drink: Planter's Punch Recipe

[Photo: Robyn Lee]

Holy smokes, it's hot out there.

With Independence Day behind us and the wide, sun-baked expanse of July and August before us, it's good to have a few basic drink recipes banked away for those times when you want something cold and refreshing. And when it comes to basic, cold and delightful, few drinks can beat a Planter's Punch.

The Planter's Punch flowed out of the rum-rich Caribbean well over a century ago, and its origins date back centuries. Originally a simple combination of a full-flavored rum with lime juice, sugar, some form of spice and plenty of ice, the Planter's Punch morphed over the decades into elaborate concoctions containing pineapple juice, grenadine, several types of rum and so on, and the drink is the common ancestor of all those tiki drinks and punches that are once again in vogue.

While messing with original recipes is often disdained in the cocktail world, the Planter's Punch is the kind of laid-back drink that it's best not to get too worked up about.

Feel free to experiment with the basic recipe (this one is from Beachbum Berry Remixed, by Jeff Berry, and was contributed by New Orleans-based rum collector Stephen Remsberg, who has experimented with Planter's Punch recipes for more than 20 years and settled on this version as his favorite), substituting grenadine for some of the sugar, for example, or trying a mixture of different styles of rum.

As long as the drink remains icy and refreshing, virtually any edits you make are bound to work out.

About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.

Ingredients

• 3 ounces Coruba dark Jamaican rum (if you can't find Coruba, substitute another dark, heavy rum)
• 1 ounce simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, mixed until dissolved)
• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Directions

Combine ingredients in a tall glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle with a bar spoon until a frost forms on the outside of the glass. The ice will settle as you do this; add more crushed ice to fill, garnish with a mint sprig.

Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.

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Planter's Punch Cocktail Recipe

• 3 mins
• Prep: 3 mins,
• Cook: 0 mins
• Yield: 1 serving

Planter's Punch is a classic rum drink that first appeared in print in a 1908 edition of the New York Times. Like many other drinks, this has a disputed origin: one claim refers to the Planter's Hotel in St. Louis and another tells of a Jamaican planter's wife who concocted it to cool down the workers.

Beyond its origins, this is one of those drinks that has many recipe variations. It seems like everyone has their own way to make it, but the key to this punch is to not do what everyone else does and make it your own.

Other Planter's Punch recipes include combinations of curacao, bitters, or different juices such as pineapple and orange. At some bars, ​you will even find that a 'bar punch mix' is used instead of individual juices.

While the recipe below is for a single serving, the measurements can easily be increased to serve at a party. If you want to skip the rum, there is a non-alcoholic version of Planter's Punch that is quite tasty as well.

Planter’s Punch

A West Indies original.

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Planter’s Punch can be traced back to a time when the West Indies were considered exotic, and recipes were written in verse. “Two of sour, one and a half of sweet, three of strong and four of weak,” directed one description from a 1908 article in the New York Times.

Ingredient ratios vary from account to account as does the drink’s name—it’s been known as Jamaican Rum Punch (Savoy Cocktail Book) and Creole Punch (British novelist Alec Waugh)—but it almost always contains rum, lime, sugar and water. More modern versions like the one from tiki stalwart Trader Vic might include grenadine or curaçao. Really, it’s up to the drinker when it comes to additions beyond the nursery rhyme specs, just as long as they’re added to base of good, dark Caribbean rum.

Planter’s Punch

from Punch (http://punchdrink.com)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounces dark rum
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce pineapple juice
• 1/2 ounce orange juice
• 1/4 ounce grenadine

Garnish: pineapple wedge, citrus wheels and/or mint sprig

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker.
2. Add ice and shake until chilled.
3. Strain over ice into a rocks glass.
4. Garnish with a pineapple wedge, citrus wheels and/or mint sprig.

Editor's Note

This cocktail can easily be batched as a punch. Just multiply the measurements by the number of servings desired.

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Planter's Punch

• Display recipe in:

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass.

Orange slice & mint sprig

A tangy punch which harnesses the rich flavours of Myers's rum.

Invented in the late 19th century by the founder of Myers's rum, Fred L. Myers. The recipe on the back of each bottle is known as the 'Old Plantation formula' and uses classic rum punch proportions of 1 sour (lime), 2 sweet (sugar), 3 strong (rum) and 4 weak (water). Rather than this or the American formula ( 1 sour, 2 sweet, 3 weak, and 4 strong), I've followed David A. Embury's recommendation of 1 sweet, 2 sour, 3 strong and 4 weak.

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Planter's Punch

Planter's punch is a traditional Caribbean cocktail. The basic recipe calls for equal parts orange and pineapple juice, guava nectar, and rum. For the best results, use fresh orange and lime juice.

Ingredients

• 1 cup white rum
• 1 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges)
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 cup bottled guava nectar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon Angostura bitters
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 6 fresh pineapple slices
• 6 orange slices
• 6 maraschino cherries
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (optional)

Nutritional Information

• Calories 213
• Caloriesfromfat 1%
• Fat 0.1g
• Satfat 0.1g
• Monofat 0.0g
• Polyfat 0.0g
• Protein 0.6g
• Carbohydrate 23.8g
• Fiber 0.6g
• Cholesterol 0.0mg
• Iron 0.3mg
• Sodium 1.6mg
• Calcium 15mg

How to Make It

Combine first 7 ingredients in a pitcher. Serve over ice. Garnish each serving with 1 cinnamon stick, 1 pineapple slice, 1 orange slice, and 1 cherry. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

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Planter's Punch

Ingredients

• 3 ounces rum -- dark rum
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce grenadine
• 1/4 teaspoon superfine sugar

Instructions:

Stir well with cracked ice, then strain into a Collins glass full of cracked ice; stick a straw in it and garnish with whatever the hell you want. We recommend using Jamaican rum.

The Wondrich Take:

Stripping off the white linen suit and Panama hat, laying aside the panatella and the silver-headed malacca cane, the Planter's Punch is just another rum-sugar-citrus drink (see the daiquiri, the mojito, and the caipirinha). In 1930, the English traveler Alec Waugh described the "ritual of mixing a Creole punch" thus: "quarter of a finger's height of sugar, two fingers high of rum, the paring of a lime, the rattling of ice." That's about it for the basic version. Not fascinating, but as long as you use a decent dark rum -- from Jamaica, Barbados, or Martinique -- distinctly palatable. But that's not the whole story. There are variations: with orange juice, with grenadine, with curaçao, with Angostura bitters, with just about anything vaguely Caribbean -- even cayenne pepper. Garnishes range from none to sensible to amusing to ridiculous. In fact, the plain old Planter's Punch has become an umbrella drink.

There's no shame in that. Not much, anyway. Man cannot live by the stemmed glass alone: Sometimes there must be a tiki mug. So put on your Hawaiian Punch hat, turn Martin Denny up on the hi-fi, and give out with the "How low can you go?" Here's Trader Vic's recipe from 1947; it's a killer. And dig the crazy color.

Planter's Punch Cocktail

Ingredients (4)

• 1 1/2 ounces light rum
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• Dash of fresh orange juice
• Wedge of lemon

• Calories 105
• Fat 0.07g
• Saturated fat 0.01g
• Trans fat
• Carbs 2.19g
• Fiber 0.26g
• Sugar 0.77g
• Protein 0.16g
• Cholesterol
• Sodium 0.78mg
• Nutritional Analysis per serving (1 servings)Powered by

The word punch is probably derived from the Hindi word panch, meaning five, because of its five basic ingredients: citrus juice, water, spices, sugar, and arrack, which is fermented palm sap, rice, or molasses. The ingredients today are almost limitless. Punches were staples at pubs, taverns, and inns during the 18th and 19th centuries. British actor David Garrick and lexicographer Samuel Johnson tried to outdo each other by concocting newer and stronger punches, while George Washington was partial to the legendary Fish House Punch, introduced in 1732 at the Schuylkill Fishing Club in Philadelphia. Punches eventually became familiar sights at any social gathering. Just as colleges all had their own mascots, Yale Punch, Harvard Punch, and Columbia Punch were formulated in the 1920s. Punches were in such demand in the 1930s that The Savoy Cocktail Book lists 15, and their popularity only increased, as can be witnessed by the 20 recipes given in the 1971 Playboy’s Host and Bar Book.

Planters' Punch Cocktail

Directions

10 m

1. Lightly moisten the mint sprig and sprinkle with sugar. Set aside.
2. Fill a Collins glass with ice. Pour in orange juice, lime juice, lemon juice, and pineapple juice. Stir until the glass is frosted. Add light rum and Jamaican rum; stir until combined. Top with triple sec and grenadine. Garnish with slices of orange, lemon, pineapple, maraschino cherry, and the sugar-dipped spring of mint. Serve with a straw.

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Planter's Punch Cocktail

Ingredients (4)

• 1 1/2 ounces light rum
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• Dash of fresh orange juice
• Wedge of lemon

• Calories 105
• Fat 0.07g
• Saturated fat 0.01g
• Trans fat
• Carbs 2.19g
• Fiber 0.26g
• Sugar 0.77g
• Protein 0.16g
• Cholesterol
• Sodium 0.78mg
• Nutritional Analysis per serving (1 servings)Powered by

The word punch is probably derived from the Hindi word panch, meaning five, because of its five basic ingredients: citrus juice, water, spices, sugar, and arrack, which is fermented palm sap, rice, or molasses. The ingredients today are almost limitless. Punches were staples at pubs, taverns, and inns during the 18th and 19th centuries. British actor David Garrick and lexicographer Samuel Johnson tried to outdo each other by concocting newer and stronger punches, while George Washington was partial to the legendary Fish House Punch, introduced in 1732 at the Schuylkill Fishing Club in Philadelphia. Punches eventually became familiar sights at any social gathering. Just as colleges all had their own mascots, Yale Punch, Harvard Punch, and Columbia Punch were formulated in the 1920s. Punches were in such demand in the 1930s that The Savoy Cocktail Book lists 15, and their popularity only increased, as can be witnessed by the 20 recipes given in the 1971 Playboy’s Host and Bar Book.

Planter's Punch

This classic cocktail that dates back to 1800s London is perfect for sipping on a warm day.

Source: Everyday Food, July/August 2013

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Ingredients

• Ice
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
• 1/2 cup lime juice (from about 6 limes)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup grapefruit juice
• 1 cup gold rum
• 1 ounce grenadine
• 10 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• Lime wedges

Directions

Cook's Notes

For the best-tasting drinks, use fresh lemon and lime juices and skip the bottle.