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Veranda Punch
Juice of 3 lemons Juice of 2 oranges 1/2 cup sugar sirup 1 cup tea infusion 1 pint ginger ale 1 pint charged water Mix fruit-juice and sugar sirup. Add the hot tea. Cool, and, when ready to serve, add ginger ale and charged water. Thin slices of lemon and orange may be used for a garnish.
A non-alcoholic summer punch of the 1920s and '30s, built on a tea base rather than wine. The proportions are sound; only the vocabulary needs updating.
- Sugar sirupSimple syrup: equal parts sugar and water by volume, heated until clear and cooled. Half a cup of syrup carries roughly a third of a cup of sugar, so start there and adjust to your fruit.
- Tea infusionOne cup of brewed tea; the recipe does not specify the kind, though black tea is the likeliest intent, nor the strength. Over-steeped tea can turn the punch bitter and astringent once the citrus goes in.
- Charged waterPlain carbonated water — club soda or seltzer. Not tonic, which adds quinine bitterness the recipe does not want.
- Add the tea hotThe recipe adds the tea hot to the juice and syrup, then has the base cooled before anything fizzy goes in. Pouring carbonated water into warm liquid loses most of the fizz.
- Carbonation lastThe ginger ale and soda go in at the moment of serving. A punch bowl assembled an hour ahead will be flat; keep the citrus-tea base cold in a pitcher and top up in batches.
- IceThe recipe does not mention ice. If you use it, a single large block or a few big cubes will dilute the punch less than crushed ice.
- YieldAbout six and a half cups of liquid before ice -- a dozen or so punch-cup servings, or five to six tall glasses.