Planter's Punch

Modern recipes below

History of Planter's Punch

Planter's Punch is more of a drink category than a single recipe. In its simplest form—rum, sugar, lime (or lemon), water, perhaps some tea, and spice or bitters—it is clearly the direct descendant of the classic rum punches of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In the 17th century, British settlers along the coast of India began stirring tea, lemon, sugar and water into fermented palm sap liquor to make it more palatable; the resulting punch was rapidly translated for other ports. The simpler Planter's Punches are very simple affairs indeed, classic seventeenth and eighteenth century punches. Local rum, citrus, sugar and water or tea, with perhaps a bit of Bermuda nutmeg grated over the top. Curtis quotes Father Labat, who in 1694 recorded a Barbadian punch of rum, water, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

The punch apparently traveled back to Europe, since a columnist for American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine in 1831 reported he'd received a similar recipe in Glasgow: "A wine-glass nearly full of the best refined lump sugar pounded/ Twelve ditto of cold spring water/ A lime, and half a lemon/ Two wine glasses brimful of old Jamaican rum."

According to the 1831 article, titled "General Advice for the Health and Comfort of the Young Sportsman," the drink is "so cooling, and grateful to the thirst, that the more he drinks, the more he requires of it. . . I name this as a caution to the unwary." The author was here speaking of "cold punch" which "requires to be much weaker" than hot punch. The recipe he gives is a version of the rhyme for hot punch: "One sour, two sweet; four strong, and twenty weak." For hot punch, the recipe is the same except it is eight weak.

Also see A History of Punch

History suggests that the name "Planter's Punch" didn't appear until late in the nineteenth century, with the start of Caribbean tourism; the various island hotels that sprang up to serve the well-to-do traveller needed to serve a drink that had a nice, upscale ring to it. What until then had been simply "punch" provided a perfect opportunity, and "Planter's Punch" became the ubiquitous hotel beverage.

"Planter's Punch goes back to the 1830s, maybe even earlier," Southern food chronicler Eugene Walter wrote in a collection of cocktail recipes, posthumously published by The University of North Carolina Press. "It started out as first-quality rum blended with lemon or lime juice, but now there are literally hundreds of versions."

Wayne Curtis, author of "And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails," speculates that the first Planter's Punches were mixed in the Caribbean.

It's not clear exactly when the punch migrated into a cocktail glass, or when it acquired the permanent name "Planter's." Moss turned up a recipe for Planter's Punch in an 1878 issue of the London magazine Fun, but it was still being made in crowd-sized proportions.

The September 1878 issue of the London magazine Fun listed the recipe as follows:

A wine-glass with lemon juice fill,
Of sugar the same glass fill twice
Then rub them together until
The mixture looks smooth, soft, and nice.

Of rum then three wine glasses add,
And four of cold water please take. A
Drink then you'll have that's not bad—
At least, so they say in Jamaica.

One of the earliest references to a single-serving Planter's Punch came in 1906, when The Washington Post recommended a "Planter's Punch," as "one of the simplest concoctions in the world, and just the thing for hot weather. First a strong limeade is made with plain water, and poured into a highball glass with plenty of ice," the writer explained, attributing the preparation to the tropics. "Enough of the rum is put in to suit, usually about two fingers."

H.L. Mencken drank Planter's Punch during a 1900 trip to Jamaica (Curtis credits Kingston's Myrtle Bank Hotel, where Mencken stayed, with standardizing the drink recipe), but most Americans weren't aware of the drink until the 1930s. It became hugely popular.

Donn Beach tried his hand at Planter's Punch, and with considerable ingenuity. Chanelling the punch stylings of the early Caribbean sugar planters, with their blended rums and embellished sweeteners, Don the Beachcomber began serving his version of their drink, this time with a ginger note (falernum) and a dose of Angostura bitters. As the Tiki craze grew in popularity, so did the thirst for Planter's Punch. Don the Beachcomber served at least five different versions of Planter's Punch. His most popular recipe called for three different types of rum, lime juice, simple syrup, grenadine, falernum and Angostura bitters.

Some Modern Recipes

Planter's Punch Cocktail
from https://www.thespruce.com/

1 1/2 ounces dark rum
1/4 ounce grenadine (or 1/2 ounce lime juice and 1/4 ounce simple syrup)
2 ounces pineapple, orange, or passion fruit juice (or a mix of fruit juices)
Club soda (optional)
Seasonal fruit for garnish

Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass filled with ice cubes.
Shake well.
Strain into a highball glass filled with ice cubes.
Top with club soda if you want.
Garnish with seasonal fruits.

IBA Official Cocktail
from https://en.wikipedia.org/

4.5 cl Dark rum
3.5 cl Fresh orange juice
3.5 cl Fresh pineapple juice
2 cl Fresh lemon juice
1 cl Grenadine syrup
1 cl Sugar syrup
3 or 4 dashes Angostura bitters
Cherry and Pineapple slice garnish

Pour all ingredients, except the bitters, into shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Pour into large glass, filled with ice. Add Angostura bitters, "on top". Garnish with cocktail cherry and pineapple.

Planter's Punch
from http://imbibemagazine.com/

Rum guru Ed Hamilton says the Planter’s Punch recipe should serve as a reference point, to be tweaked according to taste—just as it was by the Caribbean plantation owners who first sipped the fruity concoction.

1 ½ oz. dark rum
2 oz. seasonal juices (passionfruit, orange, pineapple, etc.)
½ oz. lime juice
¼ oz. simple syrup (1:1)
Tools: shaker, strainer, barspoon
Glass: rocks
Garnish: float of Demerara rum plus fresh, seasonal fruit

Shake the rum, juices and syrup with ice. Strain into an ice-filled glass and garnish.

Don's Own Planters
from from http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/

As the name implies – from Don the Beachcomber:

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz Soda Water (Club Soda)
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 oz Honey Mix (1 part Honey and 1 part Water)
1 1/2 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum

Shake with ice cubes and pour everything into Pilsner glass. Garnish with mint, cherry, and pineapple finger. To make honey-mix simply heat 1/2 cup honey until liquid then add 1/1 cup water and mix it, it stays liquid so it can go in the fridge.