It's that time of the season again: the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (full disclosure, I work here) hosted another fantastic seasonal cocktail night. The theme was May Flowers, and twelve bars set up shop and sampled their signature cocktail creations to the crowd. Better yet, everything was made with seasonal farmers market ingredients.
A crowd favorite was the Oh Mai My with St. George Breaking and Entering Bourbon created by Claire Sprouse at Rickhouse. Many people also flocked towards the Titania’s Allure with Hornitas Tequila, created by Vita Simone and Marguerite Regan at The New Easy.
A couple of the cocktails really stood out to me, especially one by Alex Smith of Emeryville-based Honor Bar. It was a traditional punch cocktail, made with ingredients from the market and Tequila Blanco. Smith cheerfully talked to event attendees about the contents of the drink, noting that tequila is often describes as having vegetal flavors, inspiring him to include vegetables such as beet, carrot, and celery in his punch cocktail. The drink also incorporated lemon juice, demerara sugar, fennel juice, lavender flower, lemon zest, and a sprinkling of fennel pollen to round it out.
After chatting with Smith a bit, I realized that there's more to punch cocktails than meets the eye. This type of drink has a long history, stretching back to the early 1600s when English sailors made it while sailing 13,000 miles away from their homeland's beer and wine, usually traveling through Indonesia or India. An NPR story on the history of punch also references Charles Dickens as a punch cocktail connoisseur some 200 years later, and included a letter written to his sister describing a "classic 18th century brandy rum punch".
So what constitutes a punch? The word "punch" itself it believed to come from the Hindi word panch, meaning "five". This is a reference to the fact that punch usually included five ingredients: spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, and spice.
Smith's mixture of ingredients resulted in a drink with a beautiful deep red beet-color, brought to life with a lavender stalk, dash of bright yellow fennel pollen, and served on ice. A beautiful frozen iceberg of flowers floated in his punch bowl, which you can see in the photo to the right. Read below to learn how to make Smith's "Stalk Market Punch" on your own.
Stalk Market Punch
Recipe written and created by Alex Smith from Honor Bar in Emeryville
Ingredients:
2 parts Tequila Blanco
1 part lemon juice
1 part demerara sugar
1/4 part beet juice
1/4 part carrot juice
1/4 part celery juice
1/4 part fennel juice
1 Tbs lavender flower per 1/50 "part" of sugar (or to think about it another way: 1 Tbs per liter)
You'll also need the lemon zest, as this is a super authentic, historically accurate punch recipe in that regard.
Directions:
Blend the zests and lavender with the sugar in a food processor until the sugar looks good and "wet" and set aside. Heat the lemon juice just to boiling, then dump into "wet" sugar, stirring until dissolved. Add the tequila and vegetable juices, stir, and strain. I recommend chilling overnight and serving on ice. I chose to garnish with a lavender sprig and fennel pollen at the CUESA Cocktail Night.
A crowd favorite was the Oh Mai My with St. George Breaking and Entering Bourbon created by Claire Sprouse at Rickhouse. Many people also flocked towards the Titania’s Allure with Hornitas Tequila, created by Vita Simone and Marguerite Regan at The New Easy.
After chatting with Smith a bit, I realized that there's more to punch cocktails than meets the eye. This type of drink has a long history, stretching back to the early 1600s when English sailors made it while sailing 13,000 miles away from their homeland's beer and wine, usually traveling through Indonesia or India. An NPR story on the history of punch also references Charles Dickens as a punch cocktail connoisseur some 200 years later, and included a letter written to his sister describing a "classic 18th century brandy rum punch".
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| Alex Smith's "Stalk Market Punch" |
So what constitutes a punch? The word "punch" itself it believed to come from the Hindi word panch, meaning "five". This is a reference to the fact that punch usually included five ingredients: spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, and spice.
Smith's mixture of ingredients resulted in a drink with a beautiful deep red beet-color, brought to life with a lavender stalk, dash of bright yellow fennel pollen, and served on ice. A beautiful frozen iceberg of flowers floated in his punch bowl, which you can see in the photo to the right. Read below to learn how to make Smith's "Stalk Market Punch" on your own.
Stalk Market Punch
Recipe written and created by Alex Smith from Honor Bar in Emeryville
Ingredients:
2 parts Tequila Blanco1 part lemon juice
1 part demerara sugar
1/4 part beet juice
1/4 part carrot juice
1/4 part celery juice
1/4 part fennel juice
1 Tbs lavender flower per 1/50 "part" of sugar (or to think about it another way: 1 Tbs per liter)
You'll also need the lemon zest, as this is a super authentic, historically accurate punch recipe in that regard.
Directions:
Blend the zests and lavender with the sugar in a food processor until the sugar looks good and "wet" and set aside. Heat the lemon juice just to boiling, then dump into "wet" sugar, stirring until dissolved. Add the tequila and vegetable juices, stir, and strain. I recommend chilling overnight and serving on ice. I chose to garnish with a lavender sprig and fennel pollen at the CUESA Cocktail Night.
You should look into David Wondrich's book on Punch if you have some interest in this.
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