Loganberry Punch

A straightforward cold punch that depends almost entirely on the quality of the loganberry juice. The one thing to watch is dilution: six cups of cracked ice will melt into the bowl and thin the drink considerably.

• Loganberry juiceBottled loganberry juice was a common grocery item when this was written and is now hard to find outside the Pacific Northwest and Britain. Unsweetened blackberry or a blackberry-raspberry blend is the closest substitute; loganberries are a cross of the two and taste sharper than either.
• Sugar syrup firstDissolving the sugar in hot water before anything cold goes in is the point of that step. Granulated sugar dissolves slowly and grudgingly in an iced punch and tends to settle at the bottom of the bowl.
• The ice is an ingredientSix cups of cracked ice melts down to noticeably less than six cups of water, since cracked ice packs with air gaps and ice is lighter than water, but it still dilutes the bowl and the recipe counts on that. If you chill the punch in advance and serve over fresh ice in the glass instead, cut the six cups of cold water back or the result will be watery.
• CitrusSlice the lemons and orange thin and add them at the end, as directed. On long standing the pith can turn the punch bitter; strain the slices out if the bowl is sitting through a long party.
• Mint"Crushed slightly" is the correct instruction. Bruise the leaves between your fingers to release the oil; chopping or muddling hard tends to give a grassy, slightly bitter note.
• SweetnessHalf a cup of sugar across roughly three and a half quarts of finished punch is restrained, and may assume a sweetened bottled juice. Taste before serving and add syrup rather than dry sugar if it needs more.
• YieldTwelve servings works out to about a cup each, which suits a punch cup rather than a tumbler. The full batch is around three quarts before the ice melts.