A rum punch for four, built in a pitcher with dark and silver rum together. Two rums give it depth that one cannot — the dark carries the body, the silver keeps it bright.
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1/2 cup Bombarda Drake or Culverin
- 1/2 cup Bombarda Plunder, our silver blend
- 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
- 3/4 cup pineapple juice
- 3/4 cup cranberry juice
- 2 tbsp grenadine
- Ice, orange slices, and seltzer if you want it longer
Method of Attack:
- Combine both rums, all three juices and the grenadine in a large pitcher and stir.
- Refrigerate for an hour or two if you have the time. A punch that has sat is a better punch.
- Fill four glasses with ice and divide the mixture between them.
- Garnish each with an orange slice.
Scaling for a crowd:
Multiply straight up and build it in a bowl. Use one large block of ice rather than cubes — freeze water in a loaf tin overnight. A block chills without watering the bowl down over an evening, which is the difference between a punch that holds and one that is thin by ten o'clock.
About This Recipe:
Punch is where cocktails begin. British sailors brought it back from the Indian Ocean in the 1600s, and the old Caribbean ratio has survived everything since: one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak. Every rum punch you have ever had is a variation on that line.
Rolling thunder is what a full broadside sounded like from a distance — guns firing in sequence down the length of the ship rather than all at once, so the deck was not shaken apart by its own weapons.
Why this rum:
Three juices and a measure of grenadine. The sugar budget is spent well before the rum arrives, and because punch is made in volume there is no correcting it once it is in the bowl.
Neither Drake nor Plunder carries added sugar, caramel colorant or chill filtration, so what you taste is fruit and rum rather than sugar on sugar.
Battle Notes:
Want it lighter? Add two cups of sparkling water. It stretches the bowl without thinning the flavour the way melting ice does. And float an ounce of Revenge over the top of a finished bowl — it changes the whole thing.
More in our guide to the best rum for a rum punch.
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