It’s Punch for Two! As previously stated, the very nice people from MBooth Marketing gave me a bottle of Brugal Especial Extra Dry, so we’ll be making the Punch with this Rum. This is a totally tasty dry Rum and such a bang for your buck! Toasted marshmellow, vanilla, coconut and citrus flavours abound.

Holiday times make me think of Punch more than any other time of the year. This may have to do with the fact that last winter I had the greatest Whiskey Punch ever at Dead Rabbit NYC. Woah, damn, I think about that Whiskey Punch all year round. Come to think of it, I may have to head over to Dead Rabbit this week.

Here at my Home Bar, I’m not batching Punch for 20 people, just myself and my girlfriend, aka Punch for Two! As these recipes are created with just two people in mind, some of the rules have changed. But first, before we can talk about the rules, let’s talk about what goes into *Punch.

According to the Death & Co book, Wikipedia and David Wondrich’s Book Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, Punch contains: Spirits, sugar, citrus, water and spice. The spice is really what differentiates punch from say, a Gin Sour, Margarita or Daquiri. The other important component of Punch is that Punch is stirred and ice, soda/champagne are added after the ingredients have been properly mixed. This last rule is the one we’ll be breaking when serving Punch for Two. We aren’t going to be leaving the Punch in a bowl with ice, we’re going to shake it, serve it and top it with soda!

And now, the cocktails:

DKO Punch: I loosely based this one on a Planter’s Punch and the Mandarin Orange slices are so very nice.

DKO Punch

• 1 3/4 oz Brugal Extra Dry Rum
• 1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
• 1/2 oz Grenadine
• 1/4 oz Simple Syrup
• 1 oz Fresh Orange Juice
• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• Carbonated Lemon-aid or Lemon Soda
• Mandarin Orange Slice

In tin, combine ingredients over ice and shake. Strain into punch cups and top with Carbonated Lemon-aid/Lemon Soda. Mandarin Orange Slice garnish.

St Marks Punch: The super nice Cocktail Crate man, Mr. Alex Abbott Boyd, gave me the Ginger Bee Craft Mixer at last weekend’s Brooklyn Flea. Isn’t he kind? He’s so kind. It’s similar to my Honey Ginger juice but also has hints of clove. So nice, so perfect for punch!

St Marks Punch

• 1 1/2 oz Brugal Extra Dry Rum
• 1 1/2 oz Flor de Caña 7 Aged Rum
• 1/4 oz Santa Maria al Monte Amaro
• 1 1/2 oz Cocktail Crate Ginger Bee or Honey Ginger Juice (may need to add more Honey Syrup to taste)
• 3/4 oz Fresh Mandarin Orange Juice
• 1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 dash Hella Bitter Citrus bitters
• 1 dash Scrappy’s Cardamom bitters
• Club Soda
• Lemon slice

In tin, combine ingredients over ice and shake. Strain into Punch cups, top with Soda, Lemon slice garnish.

DeLuna Punch: Yep, you knew it, you knew there would be Tequila and you knew I would name the punch after myself cause I’m so into Tequila! Narcissism!

DeLuna Punch

• 2 oz Brugal Extra Dry Rum
• 1/2 oz Espolón Blanco Tequila
• 1/2 oz Cointreau Triple Sec
• 1 oz Agave
• 1 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime juice
• 2 dashes Elemakule Tiki Bitters (Orange bitters work but the Tiki ones have that Spice!)
• Club Soda
• Lime slice

In tin, combine ingredients over ice and shake. Strain into Punch cups, top with Soda, Lime slice garnish.

*You know what really goes into Punch? A million ingredients and that’s why I love it so much! You can finally make a cocktail with at least eight ingredients and no one will call you silly!

Cheers