Two At The Most » Swedish Punsch

May Blossom Fizz

Stevi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:28:41 +0000

The days are already noticeably shorter. It’s getting to the point where it is dark when I’m getting up. I wanted a nice summer drink to hang on to the seasonal feeling.

May Blossom Fizz

Barflies and Cocktails is still my go to recipe book. There I found the May Blossom Fizz. The recipe is written in the book as “1 teaspoonful of Grenadine, juice of half a Lemon, 1 glass of Cederland’s Swedish Punch.”

May Blossom Fizz

2 ounces Swedish punsch
0.5 ounce lemon juice
1 teaspoon grenadine

Shake ingredients, strain into rocks glass, and top with soda water.

The result is very light and refreshing. It would also work well over ice, but was quite tasty up.

Depending on my mood, I could definitely see increasing the lemon juice in this one.

I especially like how the Swedish punsch works with soda water in this drink. I had never thought to try it in a fizz. Now I know it’s delicious!

Welcome Stranger Cocktail

Stevi — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:00:54 +0000

Here’s another drink I stumbled upon in Barflies and Cocktails.

Welcome Stranger

Welcome Stranger Cocktail

0.5 ounce gin
0.5 ounce brandy
0.5 ounce Swedish punsch
0.5 ounce lemon juice
0.5 ounce orange juice
0.5 ounce grenadine

Shake until good and cold, double strain into cocktail glass.

This was one of those recipes I couldn’t quite guess how it would taste, much less if I would like it. But it was invented by Harry McElhone himself, and the man who gave us the Monkey Gland must know a little something about mixing with orange juice.

I do like it, although it is a little sweet. Grenadine and Swedish punsch seem to work well together. This is one of those multi-ingredient drinks where all the flavors blend well, nothing dominating.

That said, next time I might try upping the gin and brandy to dry it out a bit. Glad I gave it a try.

Make Your Own Grenadine

Stevi — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:44:04 +0000

It took a long time for me to warm up to grenadine as a cocktail ingredient, after a childhood chock full of bright red Rose’s Grenadine Shirley Temples.

Rose's vs Homemade Grenadine

But now I know how many great cocktails include grenadine. A couple of personal favorites are the El Presidente and the Blinker. And now that I know how easy it is to make my own grenadine, I’ll never go back to Rose’s.

Like many a first time grenadine maker, I started with Paul Clarke’s epic Grenadine Face-off. The first time I make cold process grenadine, I shook and shook and shook…and finally gave up and used the blender. The results were fine.

Now I use my handy dandy milk frother, and it’s even faster, cleaner, and easier.

Cold-Process Grenadine

1 cup pomegranate juice (I used some POM Wonderful that was sent to me for review)
1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vodka

Put juice and sugar in a conveniently sized resealable container. Take your milk frother and incorporate the sugar. Add vodka to extend life. Refrigerate. Will keep a good long time.

Have a Heart Comparison

Where Rose’s doesn’t taste much like anything but sugar to me, the homemade has the the taste of the pomegranate juice and a much richer, deep color to boot.

The best grenadine I’ve had to date was an experiment by Zane Harris (newly of Rob Roy), based on a recipe he’d uncovered that called for both pomegranate and raspberry. His process was long and complicated and someday I may try it, but for now, I’ll stick with a recipe that I can whip up even faster than simple syrup (because I don’t have to wait for it to cool).

I used my latest batch to try out a recipe in Ted Haigh’s newly reissued Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the Have a Heart. I dropped the lime juice to 1/2 ounce, adding a lime wedge garnish lets the drinker decide to tart it up.

Have a Heart Cocktail

1.5 ounces London dry gin (Voyager Small-batch)
0.75 ounces Swedish punsch (homemade)
0.5 ounces fresh lime juice
0.25 ounces homemade grenadine

Stir while thinking weepy 1934 thoughts, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lime wedge.

As in the picture above, the cocktail on the left uses Rose’s, on the right, homemade. The fake color of the Rose’s carries through to the cocktail, while the homemade contributes to a drink with a much deeper, appealing, adult color.

Even more important is the taste. I didn’t care for this cocktail with the Rose’s. With the homemade grenadine, however, this is a tasty, well rounded drink.

I must admit, I also love using my homemade grenadine in homemade Shirley Temples. Fill a rocks glass with ice, some soda water, and spoon in up to a tablespoon of grenadine, and I have a light, refreshing drink that’s just sweet enough. And it’s a great base to experiment with bitters! I especially recommend a dash or four of blueberry bitters!

What’s your favorite way to use grenadine?

Hot Buttered Swedish Punsch

Stevi — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:27:26 +0000

Here in Seattle, we’re battening down the hatches in preparation for Snowmageddon: The Return. In the calm before the storm, I took a short trail ride in the snow, and now that I’m back, I’m in need of a warming drink.

Hot Buttered Swedish Punsch

Happily, I already had some hot buttered rum batter in my refrigerator, calling to me. This batch was made using Lance J. Mayhew’s recipe. I have to agree, it’s an excellent recipe, and very easy to put together. Honestly, if I baked, I’d be using this as a base for a cookie dough. As much there is a backlash against agave syrup at the moment, I think it works well here, allowing the batter to retain a high level of sweetness without the dominance that brown sugar can bring. Next time I make it, I will probably increase the spices a bit and see what happens.

I’ve used Appleton V/X, Sailor Jerry’s, and Myer’s Original as the rum in my hot buttered rums before, but this time, I wanted something a little different. My eyes alit on a bottle of my homemade Swedish Punsch. I knew immediately that was the thing to try. I’ve had warmed Swedish Punsch before, and it’s a great way to drink punsch. It brings out the citrus in a delightful way.

Hot Buttered Swedish Punsch

2 oz Swedish Punsch
1 heaping tablespoon hot buttered rum batter

Place in mug, top with boiling water.

This may very well be my new favorite way to warm up after a day out in the cold. The Swedish Punsch brings a brightness to the mix that is very welcome and easy to drink.

What other spirits have you tried in hot winter warmers?

Cocktail Fail Tale: the Broadway Smile

Stevi — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:15:07 +0000

Not quite a Broadway Smile

Searching for more drinks to make with my Swedish punsch, I found yet another entry in Erik Ellestad’s ongoing stomp through the Savoy. This one is the Broadway Smile.

Broadway Smile Cocktail

1/3 créme de cassis (Briottet)
1/3 Swedish punsch (homemade)
1/3 Cointreau

Use liqueur glass and pour carefully so that ingredients do not mix.

I have never attempted a pousse-café style drink. How hard could it be?

Apparently a little harder than I thought.

The trick I’ve always heard is to pour each layer over the back of a spoon. So I poured in the créme de cassis. I measured out my punsch, readied my spoon, and poured slowly. Only to see it start to dilute and mix with the créme de cassis.

There was close to an appearance of layers, just that my Swedish punsch had developed quite a purple hue. Well, this is a first attempt, I told myself, and tried the Cointreau layer. That didn’t even pretend to make a layer, just diluted the purple all the way through.

Aside from the lack of experience, I suspect I was destined to fail because of my specific ingredient selection. The layers of pousse-cafés rely on carefully selecting for each additional layer a liquer of lower density, so it will be able to float on the lower layer.

The Briottet créme de cassis seems to be very light and thin compared to other choices, such as the Marie Brizard Erik used. My Swedish punsch is definitely less dense than the commercial punsch I’ve had.

At least this wasn’t a complete fail. Mixed together, these were quite tasty, and since I was making a small drink, the sweetness of all that liqueur didn’t totally overwhelm me.

Naturally, I was tempted to keep my cocktail fail a secret, but then I thought maybe you, gentle reader, would be entertained not just by stories of success, but by admissions that we cocktail bloggers are not always perfect geniuses who mix up perfect drinks. So I ask you a favor, please answer the poll below to let me know.

MxMo XXXIII: Made from Scratch — Swedish Punsch and the Suédois de vanille

Stevi — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:47:57 +0000

It’s Mixology Monday again. This month, Doug Winship at the Pegu Blog has declared the theme to be “Made from Scratch.” We are to make at least one of our own ingredients and decide if it’s worth the effort.

I have written about Swedish Punsch before. This mix of Batavia arrack, neutral spirits, sugar, water, and various flavorings is common in its namesake country, but has largely become a lost ingredient to the US.

Making Swedish Punsch

Haus Alpenz has helped minimize that loss by importing Batavia Arrack van Oosten, the one essential ingredient to making Swedish Punsch that is not readily available. I picked up a bottle when it became available in Washington State. I took one taste and was astonished at the aftertaste. I presume the source is the red rice that’s fermented as the start of the arrack making process. On its own, I found the Batavia arrack simply undrinkable.

Luckily, Erik Ellestad at the Underhill-Lounge has already done the initial research on Swedish Punsch recipes, which is what I really wanted to make with the arrack. I decided to try his Tales of the Cocktail version. It sounded like a more traditional recipe and a great place to start. As I can’t get El Dorado in Washington, after consultation with Erik, I went with Appleton V/X.

Swedish Punsch (Tales Version)

1 750 ml bottle Batavia Arrack
2 750 ml bottles Appleton V/X Rum
8 lemons, sliced thin and seeded¹
750 ml water
8 teaspoons loose black tea (Rishi Golden Yunnan)
2 crushed cardamom pods
4 cups sugar (unwashed)

put the lemon slices, rum, and Batavia arrack in a gallon jar, seal and let steep for 6 hours. Make a tea with the water, tea, and cardamom pods, let steep for six minutes, then strain. Add sugar, let cool, and refrigerate if you’re making it ahead of time. Strain rum and arrack off lemons (do not juice the lemons). Mix with tea. Bottle and let sit at least overnight. Pour into resealable bottles (start with all those rum and arrack bottles you emptied). Total will be slightly over 3 liters (I filled four and a quarter 750 ml bottles).

Comparing Punsches

On first taste after mixing the lemon steeped rum and tea, I was a little worried, but the day I let it steep made a difference. I’m really happy with this recipe.

I tasted mine alongside the Carlshamns. While the Carlshamns leads with sweetness, the Tales version starts with the lemon citrus flavor. The arrack is far more noticeable in the Tales version, but it’s much tamed down and the aftertaste I noticed drinking it straight is gone. Overall, I find the homemade Tales version to be far more flavorful and complex, and far less sweet than the commercially produced Carlshamns.

I need to make all the cocktails I’ve tried with the Carlshamns, but naturally wanted to try something new. Searching for recipes, I stumbled on the Suédois in the CocktailDB. The only hint as to the source is that this is invented by G. Buller. If anybody knows who that is, I’d be delighted to know. The cocktail’s name is French for Swedish.

Made as listed, I found that the gin brought out the harsher flavors in the Punsch. I added some vanilla simple syrup, and this smoothed out the drink and brought it all together.

Suédois de vanille

1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay)
1 oz Swedish Punsch (homemade, Tales Version)
1/2 oz dry vermouth (Martini and Rossi Bianco)
1/4 oz vanilla simple syrup

stir over ice for at least 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, sip and think of Sweden.

For the vanilla syrup, I used Rick’s recipe on Kaiser Penguin

Vanilla Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, split

bring ingredients to simmer, simmer covered for 2 minutes, remove from heat and steep for 2 hours. Strain into bottle.

A big thanks to Doug for hosting this MxMo, which finally inspired me to make Swedish Punsch. I’ll be enjoying it for quite a while, given the amount I made, but happily, the recipe was a big success and I’m looking forward to more experiments with my ingredients, Made from Scratch! Now head on over to the Pegu Blog to see the whole wrap up from everybody who participated!

[1] I used the 7mm insert on my mandoline

Pooh Bah Cocktail

Stevi — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:50:33 +0000

Believe it or not, I still have a little bit of my bottle of Swedish Punsch left. Tonight I decided to find a recipe to appreciate it. I hit a real prize with the Pooh Bah cocktail.

Pooh Bah Cocktail

3/4 oz gin (Bombay)
3/4 oz light rum (Flor de Caña 4 year Extra Dry
3/4 oz Swedish punsch (Carlshamns Flaggpunsch)
1/4 oz apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)

stir over ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, sip with a smile.

This is really a delightful cocktail. Yes, it’s a sweet cocktail, but not overpoweringly so. In this case the sweet balances the high alcohol content.

The apricot brandy really lends a depth and plays so nicely with the punsch that I’m really surprised there aren’t more cocktails that pair the two. I’m becoming very fond of the Flor de Caña Extra Dry as a mixing rum and find it works great here. Bombay is always a solid gin choice, and holds the backbone of this drink well.

I found this recipe originally in the CocktailDB, but further research unveiled it was included in the The Savoy Cocktail Book. What lead to the name Pooh Bah I do not know. I’ve not yet seen The Mikado, with the haughty Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else.

Perhaps it’s just the right name for this drink. It may take on pretensions with its fancy list of ingredients. But at heart, it’s a tasty tipple that doesn’t demand too much from the palate aside from just enjoying it.

What’s your favorite use of Swedish punsch?

Bluecoat Gin and the Corpse Reviver No. 2a

Stevi — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:41:12 +0000

It’s definitely a fun time to be a gin lover in the US. Several distillers across the country are producing new, exciting gins. I’ve tried most of the West Coast contenders, but my latest acquisition comes to us from Philadelphia: Bluecoat American Dry Gin.

Corpse Reviver No. 2a

The distiller tells us they use a handmade copper pot still, using a slow heating process in their five batch distillations to maximize separation to reduce impurities. They use a secret blend of botanicals, including, of course, juniper berries and citrus peels.

On first scent, this is a very clean gin, perhaps the least aggressively aromatic I’ve tried recently.

I have to admit, I didn’t really enjoy it straight, but then, I don’t drink gin straight, so this wasn’t a huge setback. It does have a nice feel on the tongue, but I couldn’t quite place what flavor was disagreeing with me.

The first drink I tried with Bluecoat was the Astoria. With Martini and Rossi Bianco, this was a very nice cocktail; I think I like it even better than with Junipero. Next I tried a Martinez. While it wasn’t my favorite Martinez of all time, it was very enjoyable.

Tonight, I decided I would give the Corpse Reviver No. 2a a try. After reading about it over at the Underhill-Lounge, I suspected I’d really enjoy this use of my Swedish Punsch. And I was not disappointed. The Swedish Punch and lemon juice work really well together, softened by the Cointreau. Bluecoat gives a nice background accompaniment that accentuates the Swedish Punsch flavors. As always, the dash of absinthe is just enough to punch up the drink without distracting from the other flavors.

Corpse Reviver No. 2a

3/4 oz gin (Bluecoat American Dry gin)
3/4 oz Swedish punsch (Carlshamns Flaggpunsch)
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 dash absinthe (Lucid)

shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass

I’m looking forward to more experimentation with Bluecoat. To my palate, it’s a quality product that will work well in most dry gin cocktails.

Swedish Punsch

Stevi — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:13:58 +0000

Over at A Mountain of Crushed Ice, Tiare had a contest to name her drink. As I always have a hard time naming my own drinks, I was thrilled when she liked my name. Especially since the prize was a bottle of Swedish punsch!

Swedish punsch is one of those ingredients that’s near mythological here in the United States. While it’s common in Sweden, it has not been available for a long time in the US. One of its major ingredients, Batavia Arrack, is now being imported by Haus Alpenz, and there are now many recipes to make your own punsch. And in the near future, we may be able to buy one brand, Facile.

In the meantime, I’ve never had the chance to try Swedish punsch, or any of the classic cocktails that call for it, so I was delighted when the package arrived today: my very own bottle of Carlshamns Flaggpunsch.

Opening the bottle and pouring a very small amount into a glass, I noticed that the smell is politely spicy.

On my first taste, there is a dominant sweetness. Once you let it coat your tongue, a parade of flavors come out. The tea is quite noticeable. But after my one sip of Batavia arrack straight, it didn’t have the same long, bitter aftertaste I associate with this key ingredient in punsch.

I’m not sure I’d like to sip the punsch straight, although at only 26% ABV, it should be very pleasant. I was very eager to try some cocktails. First up, I decided to go with very simple:

Doctor Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Swedish punsch
1/2 oz lime juice

shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass and enjoy

As I was hoping, this tastes somewhat like a spicy daiquiri. The tea flavor is what I notice the most. Something that would be nice to drink on the odd occasion to keep the taste buds at attention.

Looking through the CocktailDB, I found a recipe that uses both the punsch and sloe gin. I’ve been looking for interesting new sloe gin recipes since I managed to procure a bottle of Plymouth’s new offering

Mabel Berra Cocktail

1 oz Swedish punsch
3/4 oz sloe gin (Plymouth)
3/4 oz lime juice

Shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with orange twist.

On initial taste, I think 3/4 oz lime juice was a tad too much. I added 1/4 ounce agave nectar and that added a nice body to the drink. Next time I’ll probably cut back on the lime juice.

That said, I really like this cocktail. The sloe gin and Swedish punsch blend well together. The punsch does provide an interesting aftertaste; this might work better as a digestif than an apéritif.

I presume this cocktail is named after the early 20th centry comedic actress Mabel Berra. I can’t find much on her except that she was in a musical comedy called the Enchantress which played on Broadway. But if she inspired this drink, I bet she was an interesting lady