Every year, leading up to Christmas, I read A Christmas Carol. There are a couple of references to punch and I decided to look into 18th century punches which were the forerunners to the punch that Dickens was so fond of.

Punches were THE party drink of the day and many were simple in execution and deceitfully effective.

First- the basic punch

1cup- sugar
12oz- water
1oz- lime juice
5oz- lemon juice
6oz- Brandy
3oz- white wine
some lemon peel

You can add some spices- about 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg goes well I'm told but I don't like nutmeg

Thunderson's Variation
Sugar, water, Brandy, Wine and lemon peel stays the same. To that I added:

juice of 1 lemon
5 oz of Cranberry Pomegranate Juice
fresh Cranberries
Fresh Pomegranate seeds

DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER

Warning #1- this punch is deceptive. The alcohol is nearly entirely masked. VERY easy to drink way too much too fast.

Warning #2- My variation is very sweet due to the store bought juice being sweetened. You may wish to back off on the sugar a bit.

Warning #3- best chilled with a block of ice. Cubes will melt and water down too fast. I didn't use any ice at all but I'm weird.

The pomegranate seeds soak up alcohol. You can strain them out if you wish, but if you leave them in your glass and crunch them you'll have a wonderful explosion of alcohol.

That sounds like a great Saturday night, and a horrible Sunday morning.

Pour me a bumper!

There was a reason Bob Cratchit was 18min behind his time the next morning.


This can be watered down quite a bit and still retain it's flavor. Next time I make it I will probably leave the sugar alone and double the water. It can be very light and cleansing to the palate.

So you're saying this the 18th Century version of a Long Island Iced Tea?

The warning about quick intoxication reminds me of an egg nog recipe that I made maybe eight or ten years ago. The recipe is from Gourmet or Food and Wine. Seperate egg yolks and whites; add sugar,spices, rum, and bourbon to the egg yolks and mix; beat egg whites to a foam. Recombine and chill. I drank almost the whole thing myself. FML. The next morning I shot an USPSA match likely still soused for the first stages. Knowing the limit is no joke.

They all drank tiny cups of it though and I bet they didn't make a huge amount either back in those days as all of the ingredients were very expensive and/or hard to get at that time.