Recipe Description
When the doorbell rings and your guests start to arrive, you breathe a sigh of relief. Pencils down! Time to have some fun with friends and family! The first thing you do is pass around the libations. Hungry and thirsty after what feels like a full day’s work (and you have only just begun!), you will bolt anything in your hand–maybe two. So don’t put a martini in that hand, do yourself and your guests a favor and start with something lighter like this punch. Served in small glasses, diluted and on ice, this punch is light but not sweet or juicy, thanks to a tiny hint of absinthe.
This spry sipper really hits its mark without knocking you down, leaving some headspace for wine with dinner. In other words, it packs a punch, but it won’t leave you punch drunk!
Ingredients
-
5 oz Roku Gin
Other gins such as Monkey or Plymouth will work fine too. -
5 oz Sherry
The original recipe calls for Fino or Manzanilla Sherry. All I had was Harvey's Bristol Cream!!! But it worked great. (It's made in the same style as Fino if I understand correctly.) -
3.5 oz Grapefruit juice
Fresh squeezed at home is always best, but if you can get fresh squeezed or cold pressed at the store it'll work fine. -
2.5 oz simple syrup
Half sugar, half filtered water microwaved or simmered until dissolved (demerara, turbinado, raw or white granualted sugar all work fine though they do taste different) -
2.5 oz Amaro
The original recipe calls for Amaro Meletti, but I used Amaro Montenegro and it was perfect. Be careful of the very powerful herbal tasting Amaros though--they will overpower the punch. -
0.25 oz Absinthe
I accidentally used 0.5 oz my first go at making this and it completely ruined the punch! I had to go back and double all the other ingredients! So don't measure this sloppily! It's POWERFUL!
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in a large bottle with plenty of ice and shake vigorously. If you don’t have a large enough bottle, you might want to combine all ingredients and shake, then pour half into another bottle and shake each half with plenty of ice. Strain and stow in the refrigerator. The original recipe called for adding 9 ounces of water to the mix, but I think the ice dilutes it enough, especially if you serve it over ice as I prefer. In any event, dilute it to your preference.
Service
Pour into a small glass with ice–I prefer the squat negroni glass with a giant ice cube as shown. Cheers & give thanks for all the wonders of God’s bounty and man’s God-given ingenuity to create such a variety of interesting delights as what goes into this pretty punch!
