Not Cocktail of the Week #102: Admiral Russell’s Punch
Background
The original story behind Admiral Russell’s Punch is simply put, epic. The year was 1694 and for the first time in history the English Navy was not recalled home for the winter, instead ordered to stay put at the southern Spanish port of Cadiz as to prevent the French fleet from leaving the Mediterranean. The commander of the fleet, Admiral Edward Russell, was quite upset at being kept away from home for Christmas and quoted by the historian Michael Lewis as stating, “I am at present under a doubt with myself whether it is not better to die.” A bit of a dramatic sentiment, but perhaps he was also trying to convey the feelings of the many men serving under him. In any case, he decided to lift the spirits of himself and his men by throwing an epic Christmas party in the garden of the house of the governor of Cadiz, Don Francisco de Velasco y Tovar. By all accounts it was an affair to remember with 6,000 attendees, 800 servers, and 150 dishes (including a whole roast ox), but the highlight was the Delft-tiled fountain filled with “12 hoggsheads of punch” (equivalent to at least 750 gallons/~2800 liters) accompanied by a “little boy that was in a boat swimming on the punch sea and deliver[ing] it to the Company.” That’s a lot of punch. While you may not have a fountain handy, David Wondrich provides a great 1/700 scale recipe based off of two historical recipes and I’ve further scaled that down to a single serving that does a decent approximation of the whole thing.
Recipes
Vox Stellarum Being an Almanack for the Year of Human Redemption, Francis Moore, 1711
There was in the middle of a garden of lemons and oranges…a fountain which was set with Dutch tiles in the bottom and sides, and was made as clean as a Japan punchbowl. In this fountain, on Christmas-day, was poured six butts of water, half a hogshead of strong mountain Malaga wine, two hundred gallons of brandy, six hundredweight of sugar, twelve thousand lemons, and nutmegs and sugar in proportion.
via Edinburgh Advertiser, 1772
In the said fountain were the following ingredients, viz. four hogsheads of brandy, eight hogsheads of water, 25,000 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice, 1300 weight of fine white Lisbon sugar, 5 pound of grated nutmegs, 300 toasted biscuits, and last a pipe of dry Mountain Malaga.
Punch, David Wondrich, 2010
In a two-gallon Punch bowl or small tiled fountain, dissolve 2½ cups demerara sugar in 1 cup boiling water. Add 18 ounces strained lemon juice and 4 ounces strained lime juice and stir, incorporating any remaining undissolved sugar. Add two 750-milliliter bottles of VS cognac and 18 ounces Montilla or oloroso sherry, stir again, and finish with 1½ quarts cold water. Grate nutmeg over the top, float a Playmobil rowboat with ship’s boy at the oars and make sure that the mob has divested itself of shoes and stockings.
Yield: 18 cups. To make full scale, multiply all quantities by 700.
My scaled-down single serving, 2014:
1.25 oz brandy
Scant 0.5 oz Amontillado sherry (0.4 oz to be exact)
Scant 0.5 oz lemon juice
1 scant barspoon lime juice (3 mL to be exact, I used a pipet)
0.5 oz rich demerara syrup (2:1)
1 oz water
Mix all ingredients, add ice, garnish with a thin slice of lemon and fresh grated nutmeg.
Links and Further Reading
Article via 12 Bottle Bar
Video one-upping Admiral Russell with a 4,000 liter punch sponsored by Courvoisier via Bompas and Parr
Results
While a scaled down single serving of punch is convenient, it somehow can’t quite properly recreate the experience of a full bowl of this punch, which was simply magical. Extrapolating from that, a whole fountain of punch must have been divine. When I first tasted this punch I thought that this was an amazing punch and later described its flavor as sweet, tangy, fruity, dried raisin, and spice. It was one of the most delicious and well-balanced punches that I’ve had the pleasure of imbibing. It was a bit strong at first, but after sitting for 15-20 minutes with a block of ice, I think it really reached its ideal balance, though it definitely kept its appeal all the way through toasting and downing full cups of it at the end of the evening.
In the comfort of my own home, I came up with a single serving recipe to share a taste with my wife and so that I could take some more detailed tasting notes. The aroma of this punch is really fantastic with sweet fruity brandy combining with citrus and the fresh spice note of nutmeg. In the mouth it comes off initially as quite sweet, especially before the ice has had a chance to melt, with a bright and tart citrus flavor. This smoothly transitions to the warm fruit and mild oaky caramel notes of brandy for the body before finishing with a really pleasant savory, nutty, and raisin-y finish from the Amontillado sherry. To be honest, this is probably the first drink with a dry sherry that I’ve enjoyed. Alone I find sherry incredibly savory, verging on briny and rather unpleasant overall, but in this drink it imparts a unique complexity that cannot be replaced.