Tea Punch
1 Quart Moderately Strong Tea 1/4 Can Pineapple 1 Dozen Lemons 2 Sliced Oranges 2 Cups Yellow Corn Syrup Water to Make 1 Gallon Mineral Water may be used in place of part of the water, or a quart of claret may be added.
A proportion list rather than a method, which is how punches were usually written down: the assembly was assumed. The one thing worth getting right is the tea, since everything else is sugar and fruit.
- Brew the tea for the glass, not the cupSteep the leaves three to four minutes and strain them off immediately. Tea left on the leaves or held hot for an hour turns bitter and tannic, and no amount of syrup will hide it in a cold drink.
- A dozen lemonsTwelve average lemons give roughly 2 to 2 1/2 cups of juice, which is a lot of acid for a gallon. Start with two cups, taste against the syrup, and hold the rest back.
- Quarter of a can of pineappleCanned pineapple then often came in a No. 2 can, about 20 fluid ounces, so a quarter is roughly 5 ounces of fruit with its juice. Crushed pineapple in juice is a serviceable modern equivalent; use the syrup from the can as part of the sweetening if you buy it packed in syrup.
- Yellow corn syrupA golden or amber grade, between the crystal-white syrup and the dark, more strongly flavoured one. Modern light corn syrup is the nearest substitute. Two cups in a gallon is sweet by current taste; a cup and a half is a reasonable starting point.
- Mineral waterIn this period the term usually meant a carbonated bottled water rather than a still one. Add it at the last minute or the punch will be flat before it reaches the table.
- The claret optionClaret meant a dry red Bordeaux or a wine in that style. A quart in a gallon puts the finished punch somewhere around 3 percent alcohol, closer to a shandy than a cocktail, which is why it could be offered at a general gathering.
- Assembly and chillingCombine tea, juice, fruit and syrup, chill thoroughly, then dilute to a gallon with water and ice just before serving. A large ice block melts more slowly than cubes and keeps the punch from thinning out over an afternoon.
- YieldA gallon fills roughly 25 to 30 standard punch cups, or about a dozen tall glasses over ice.
Tea punch belongs to a long line of "cup" drinks — claret cup, badminton cup, tea cup — that carried English party drinking into American parlours, where citrus, ice and a base of cold tea did the work that spirits did elsewhere. A punch bowl scaled where individual drinks did not, which is much of its appeal for a large, mixed, daytime gathering. The corn syrup is the modern touch. Commercial corn syrup became widely available in American kitchens in the first decade of the twentieth century and was promoted as a cheaper, non-crystallising substitute for sugar syrup, which is exactly what a cold punch wants. The optional quart of claret at the end, offered as an afterthought rather than an assumption, reflects a period when the same recipe had to serve households that drank wine and households that did not.