Tea Punch
1 cup strong tea 1 cup sugar 1 sliced lemon 1 cup stoned cherries 1 cup slightly crushed raspberries or strawberries 1 quart water or carbonated water 1/2 cup maraschino cordial Cracked ice Pour the hot tea over the sugar, then, when cold, add the fruit, water, cordial and ice. Chill thoroughly before serving. Serves 6.
A cold fruit punch built on a sweetened tea base, of the kind that filled punch bowls at afternoon parties. It needs only a few notes to translate.
- Dissolve the sugar while the tea is hotThis is the hinge. A cup of sugar will not dissolve in cold tea, and undissolved grit settles at the bottom of the bowl. Pour the hot tea over the sugar and stir until clear, then let it cool completely before anything else goes in.
- "Strong tea"Roughly double-strength black tea: about 2 heaping teaspoons of loose leaf, or two bags, to the cup, steeped 4 to 5 minutes. Do not push the steep past that or the tannin turns bitter and the bitterness is very noticeable once the drink is cold and sweet.
- Stoned cherries"Stoned" means pitted. Fresh sweet cherries, halved, are what is meant; jarred maraschino cherries will make the punch cloying given the sugar and the cordial already present.
- Maraschino cordialA clear, dry-ish cherry liqueur distilled from marasca cherries, still sold under that name; Luxardo is the common brand. It is not the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries, which is a different product entirely. For a non-alcoholic version, leave it out and add a little more crushed fruit.
- Carbonated waterIf you use it, add it at the last moment rather than during the chilling, or the fizz will be gone by the time the bowl reaches the table. Chill the tea base, fruit and cordial together first, then top up.
- IceCracked ice melts fast and waters down the bowl once the quart of water is in. A single large block or a frozen ring of water and fruit holds the chill with less dilution.
- YieldSix servings as written, about 2 quarts total, so roughly a generous cup each. Easily doubled for a bowl.
Tea punch of this sort belongs to the long American tradition of the summer party bowl, where cold tea rather than wine or spirits carried the flavour and the sugar. Recipes for iced and sweetened tea appear in American cookbooks from the 1870s onward, as ice became cheaper and iceboxes more widespread, and fruited tea punches were common at receptions, church socials and bridge afternoons in the early twentieth century. The half-cup of maraschino here is characteristic: a small measure of liqueur added perfume, the almond-and-cherry note that pitted fresh cherries alone do not give. The offer of carbonated water as an alternative to plain reflects the growing availability of bottled soda water in the home.