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Tea Punch
1 quart tea 1 pound sugar Juice of 6 lemons Juice of 2 oranges 1 1 lemon sliced Make the tea as usual; and more water as desired. of lemon floating on the top. add sugar and fruit juices, cracked ice Serve in a punch bowl with thin slices
A simple citrus-and-tea punch of the sort served from a bowl at afternoon gatherings. The proportions are generous with sugar by modern taste, and the tea itself carries the whole drink.
- Brew strong, then diluteBrew, then dilute -- A quart of tea is the base, not the finished volume; the recipe says to make the tea as usual and add more water as desired once the sugar and juice are in. Bear in mind that melting ice will thin it further.
- Sugar quantityA pound of sugar is roughly 2 1/4 cups to a quart of tea, which is very sweet by current standards. Dissolve it in the hot tea, taste once the juices are in, and hold back part of it if you prefer a drier punch.
- Dissolve while hotStir the sugar into the tea before it cools. Cold tea will leave grit in the bottom of the bowl, and a syrup made separately is easier to adjust.
- Citrus yieldSix lemons give roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of juice and two oranges about 1/2 cup, depending on size. Strain out seeds and pulp unless you want cloudy punch.
- Tannin and coldStrong black tea chilled fast can go cloudy. Let it cool at room temperature before it meets the ice, or accept the haze, which does no harm to the flavour.
- IceCracked ice, as called for here, melts quickly and dilutes as it goes. A single large piece melts more slowly and holds the strength longer.
- YieldWith water added to fill a punch bowl this makes roughly 2 to 3 quarts, enough for 10 to 12 cups.
Tea punches belong to the long line of English punches that reached America in the eighteenth century, where the standard formula ran to spirit, citrus, sugar, water and spice. Substituting brewed tea for the spirit produced a temperance punch suitable for church socials, ladies' luncheons and afternoon receptions, and such recipes multiplied in American household books through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the temperance movement gained ground. Its appearance in a canning and preserving section is less odd than it looks: sugar syrups, fruit juices and the bottling of beverages were all handled together in books of this period, since the same skills of extracting and sweetening juice applied to both. The floating lemon slices are pure presentation, a punch bowl being as much a centerpiece as a drink.