Loganberry Fruit Cup

A cold fruit punch built on loganberry juice, with tea and spice for backbone. The proportions are sound; only a few of the ingredients and vessels need translating.

• Loganberry juiceThe loganberry is a raspberry-blackberry cross, once widely bottled on the Pacific coast and now rarely sold as juice. Unsweetened bottled blackberry or black raspberry juice is the closest substitute; if you press your own, strain well, since the seeds and pulp cloud the drink.
• Charged waterPeriod term for carbonated water — plain soda water or seltzer. Add it at the last moment, off the ice, or the fizz is gone before the glasses reach the table.
• Simple syrupEqual parts sugar and water by volume, boiled briefly and cooled. With the third cup of honey this gives a moderately sweet punch; taste after the juice goes in, since bottled berry juices vary from tart to nearly candied.
• The teaOne cup of brewed tea, cooled; the recipe does not say which kind, though black is the likely intention. Brewing it on the short side and cooling it before it meets the acid helps, since over-steeped tea turns astringent and muddies the fruit.
• Cucumber and cinnamonBoth are infusions, not garnishes, and the instruction to remove them matters. Two slices of cucumber over a few hours give a clean green note; left in overnight they go soft and vegetal, and the cinnamon stick turns the whole bowl medicinal.
• Chilling time"Chill well" is the only instruction given; a few hours will let the spice and cucumber register. Everything up to that point can be made ahead if the cinnamon and cucumber are pulled out first.
• Ice blocksLarge pieces cut from a block, which melt slowly and keep the drink from watering down. A single large cube or a chunk from a loaf pan of frozen water does the same work; crushed ice will dilute this within minutes.
• YieldEight tall glasses, roughly two quarts before ice. Scale the charged water with the rest rather than topping up individual glasses, so the sweetness stays even.