Batched Holiday Craft Cocktails for Parties: This is Not Your Grandma's Punch

Punch, a practical and delicious way to serve drinks to a crowd for parties, got a bad rap a while ago and has never really recovered from it's sherbert and 7 Up Days. These punch recipes I will share are not your gram's punch, nostalgic as it is, these are craft cocktail recipes that are adjusted to serve a crowd and smartly contain ingredients that work well when sitting with ice over a few hours during a party, and even sitting batched in the fridge hours before, so that you can prep food and light candles instead of worrying about the drinks.

Punches and other large format drinks rely on the right ingredients- stable, tasty, easy to batch ingredients- to work well. For instance, Simple Goodness Syrups are infused with layered, complex flavors and have sweet, sour, herbal, floral or spice components. This makes them heavy hitters for punch, and the fac t that they are ready to go and shelf stable but crafted naturally with whole ingredients makes them easy to add to batched beverages and still get a craft cocktail, fresh tasting result. 

The Punch category has a whole history dating back to Great Britain, spreading to the new Americas, with America's founding fathers  celebrating with 14- FOURTEEN- bowls of rum punch at City tavern after the signing of the constitution. Martha Washington's famous punch contained the 5 essential ingredients that ring true today- sugar, sour, spice, booze, and water to dilute and mellow the other 4 components. Originally, rum was the alcohol of choice, but the easy to serve, crowd pleasing party punches listed below mix up the alcohol of choice. 

What they all have in common are the big 5, so remember when making substitutions that you want to maintain a balance between sweet, sour, spice, booze, and water. Here are 4 recipes we love to get you through the holiday, or any party season!

Make the Perfect Festive Party Punch

1. Combine spirit, juice, syrup, bitters and water, stir, and taste. Chill this mix (this can be made ahead early in the day and chilled in the fridge until guests arrive and  final steps are added.)
2. Just before serving, add the carbonated ingredients such as sparkling wine or soda.
3. Unmold your ice by running hot water quickly around the outside of the mold to release the ice. Place ice upside down in the bowl or dispenser so the frozen ornamental ingredients show through. 
4. Only serve punch with small glasses- about 8 ounces, or teacup size, as these punches have a strong alcohol content and a couple of glasses can sneak up on you!

Spiced Apple Punch

• 4 cups Bourbon
• 1 cup of orange juice and 1 cup of lemon juice 
• 1/2 cup Apple Pie syrup
• 8-12 dashes (to taste) cinnamon or cardamom bitters 
• 2 1/2 cups club soda 
• Ice Mold made with cranberries, dried orange wheels and cinnamon sticks 

 Berry Mule Punch

• 4 cups Vodka
• 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup of lime juice 
•  8-12 dashes (to taste)  angostura or cardamom bitters
• 1/2 cup Berry Sage syrup 
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup ginger ale
• Ice Mold made with herbs (sage works well to hold its color when frozen) and berries 

 Belinda's Favorite Non-alcoholic Punch

• 3 cups citrus seltzer
• 1 cup pineapple and 1 cup of lime juice 
•  8-12 dashes (to taste)  angostura or cardamom bitters
• 1/2 cup Simple Goodness Syrup- we like using Orange Vanilla, Herb Garden, Rhubarb Vanilla Apple Pie, Cranberry Rosemary, and Berry Sage syrups for the holidays
• 1 1/2 cups coconut water* 
• 2 cup ginger beer
• Ice Mold made with herbs (sage works well to hold its color when frozen) and berries 

*for texture/added viscosity, the flavor will not be noticable but if preferred, this can be subbed for still water

Margamosa Punch

• 4 cups Blanco Tequila
• 1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice + 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup Berry Sage syrup
• 1 cup prosecco 
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Ice Mold made with lime wheels and berries

Harvest Moon Punch

• 4 cups Botanical Gin
• 1 cup pressed apple cider
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup Apple Pie syrup
• 10-14 dashes orange bitters 
• 1 cup lime seltzer
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Ice Mold made with fresh herbs frozen into a wreath- like shape (let any soft herbs such as mint stick out of the top of the ice mold, to avoid browning, hardier herbs such as sage can be submerged and frozen in the ice

Punch Ice Mold

Ingredients

• Ice container- see note below

• Distilled water, enough to fill your selected container

• Punch garnishes: cinnamon sticks, dried citrus, whole spices and fruits, etc

Directions

1. Pick a form- use any  bowls, bundt pans, or recycled food containers. Measure that it will fit into your punch bowl or dispenser and fit in your freezer. Tupperware, ice cream pails or bundt cake forms all work.  
2. To get clear ice, use bottled, distilled water or boil water to remove cloudiness. Or use tap water, but it will be cloudy. As the ice melts, you will still see all the color and beauty of your decorations.  
3. Add fruit, spices, and herbs to the mold, then fill 2/3 full with distilled water, freeze until mostly solid. This step holds the decorations in place. If you skip this step and do a single freeze, that’s fine, but your decorations will melt into the punch more quickly. Next fill to the top with more water. Freeze again. 
4. Before serving, remove the ice from the form by running the side and bottom of the form quickly under hot tap water.

Also in Simple Goodness Sisters Recipes