Punch

Punch reached Europe through sailors and merchants working the Indian Ocean and Caribbean trade in the seventeenth century. Its name probably comes from the Hindi panch, meaning five, for the five elements of spirit, sugar, citrus, water and spice. Punch houses became the first commercial cocktail bars in London, and the formula is the direct ancestor of sours, Collinses, cobblers and tiki drinks.

• The word “punch” enters English in the 1600s, alongside the first punch houses.
• Jerry Thomas codified cold and hot punch recipes in 1862.
• Tiki bartenders revived the shared-bowl format in the 1930s.

• Milk punch
• Champagne punch
• Planter’s punch
• Fish house punch

“A punch bowl was a status object in Georgian Britain, often fitted with a ladle and a lock.”