Cider Cup

"Cups", along with "fizzes", "flips", "daisy's", "frappes" and more, were often listed in their own separate sections in early cocktail books.  

This recipe comes from Jacques Straub's book that was published in 1914, and simply titled "Drinks". There are twenty recipes in this book for "Cups", all reflecting scaled down and bubbly punches served in "large glass pitchers."

Designed to accommodate 4-6 people, cups are perfect for entertaining. There are some great looking recipes here, with fun names as well, like "Biship's Cup", "Lord Latounne Cup", "Turk's Neck Cup" and "Velvet Cup".

They contain champagne, ginger ale, sparkling mineral water, hard cider, or even porter for the bubbles, and various selections of fruit and cordials for added flavor. A bit like a sparkling sangria.

I did not "age" the mix here, as the non-carbonated ingredients would not have created enough liquid to soak the fruit overnight. This would be the same for all of the "cup" recipes I've read. So, you just throw it together shortly before, or even just after your guests arrive. 

Here's the recipe I recently used, as it appears in Straub's book:

Cider Cup

Use large glass pitcher, into which put:
4 slices lemon.
5 slices orange.
5 slices pineapple.
1 jigger brandy.
1/2 jigger curacoa.
1/2 jigger maraschino.
1 quart champagne cider, or sweet cider, as preferred.
2 dashes lemon juice.
Cherries.
1 large piece of ice.
1 bunch of mint on top.

I was able to get the required "4 slices of lemon" from one piece of fruit, same with the "5 slices of orange". (The blood oranges at the store were looking good, so I used them here.) I cubed the fresh pineapple rather than making slices - I just didn't have the right knife to make thin enough slices.

For the brandy, I used 2 oz of Christian Brother's VSOP, 1 oz Cointreau for the curacoa, 1 oz Luxardo Maraschino, 2 pints of Strongbow English dry cider, and maybe 1/3 of a can of "Royal Anne" cherries from Oregon fruit products (do not add any of the syrup though, just the cherries).

This was a big hit! Very tasty, especially if you already like hard cider...and how could you not like hard cider?

One last tip, don't forget to encourage your guests to fish out some of the fruit to garnish their cups with!

Easy Congac and Rum Cold Punch

A little history first...

Punch is making a comeback, for lots of good reasons too! For the full story, pick up Dave Wondrich's new book titled "Punch" - (Penguin, ISBN: 978-0-399-53616-8)

Tales have been coming from the punch bowl for quite a while now. Punch's humble beginnings in the seventeenth century sprang from "necessity" when it was consumed by bored agents of the empire in far off postings as a way to temper the strong "aqua vitae" (and also simply to pass the time).

By using the sugar, citrus and spices that were readily available in India and the islands of the tropics they found that they could tame the raw spirits of the day into something that was more than merely palatable.

It's had quite a journey over the last four to five centuries. It was once a ubiquitous and well practiced art but the pace of modern life eventually caught up with punch. Most people simply didn't have the time to sit around and see a bowl through to the end.

Around the same time (the mid 1800's) cocktails were evolving as mini, made-to-order Punches. See David's book "Imbibe" for that story. Punch use slowly went from a way of life, to a holiday tradition, to the near extinction of present day. That could be changing though...

After recently reading David's"Punch" book, I was inspired to try my hand at one for the family's Thanksgiving feast this year.

I went with the basic "reference" recipe from the book and used a mixture of Martell VS cognac and Smith and Cross Jamaican rum.
THE RECIPE

Step 1  Prepare the "Oleo-Saccharum"

Take a veggie peeler and carefully peel the skin from 3 lemons in long strips. Be sure to avoid as much of the white pith as possible, Save the lemons for juicing and put the peels into a large, non-reactive bowl.

Add 6 oz of sugar.

Use a muddler to mash the peels into the sugar until it is wet with lemon oil.

Now let this rest for a minimum of 30 minutes. Give it an hour if you can. The sugar will continue to draw out the oils from the lemon peel.


Step 2 Preparing the Shrub (or Sherbet)

Juice the lemons and any additional necessary to get 6 oz of strained lemon juice and stir it into the oleo-sacchrum.

Side note: If you are using a rough sugar like a turbinado or demerara then add 6 oz of boiling water to the oleo-saccharum and muddle the sugar until mostly dissolved before adding your lemon juice.

Stir it up and remove the peels with a slotted spoon. You can reserve the peels for garnishing the drinks or do what I did and decorate the ice for the punch bowl with it.

Step 3 Adding the spirits and wines.

I went ahead and strained the shrub once more time after removing the lemon peels and before I added the spirits. Once you have a nice clear shrub, add 750 ml of spirits. You can use whatever you like, I went with the author's suggestion of 9 oz of Smith and Cross Jamaican rum and 16 oz of Martell VS cognac because it sounded so good. Stir, taste, you are now ready to bottle this up for transport or later use.

The concentrated punch ready for bottling. 

Bowl, cups, bottles, nutmeg, ice - check! I'm ready to go.

Step 4 Dilution, Cooling and Spice

When you are ready, add the punch, 4.5 cups of cold water, your ice, and taste. If it's too strong, add more water. Grate a 1/4 to 1/2 of a whole nutmeg over the top. You are done, and no playing "bartender" all night either!

The assembled punch ready to be enjoyed.

As you can see, the punch was a hit!

Going...

...going...

Gone!