One ingredient I’ve kind of put off making is Sirop-de-Citron.

Not because it is particularly or challenging to manufacture, but mostly because I have a bottle of Monin Lemon Syrup I’ve barely put a dent in.

However, I’ve never really been thrilled with the drinks I’ve made with the Monin Syrup.

With the recent arrival of Clayton’s Kola Tonic, an ingredient commonly combined with Sirop-de-Citron, it seemed like a good opportunity to revisit. Plus, it’s Lemon season.

Source recipes:

La Cuisine de Jardin

Pause Cuisine

Sirop-de-Citron

Ingredients:

5 Lemons
1kg Natural Sugar
Water

Method: Slice lemons, (note deadly ceramic Mandolin in foreground and cut resistant glove in background,) toss with sugar and place in a clean container.

Let stand for 2-3 days.

Add mixture to a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.

Strain through cheesecloth.

If you desire, save now candied peel, dehydrate and store in a sealed container.

Strain into clean 750ml bottle, fill with water.  Refrigerate, (though with this much sugar to liquid, I really doubt much is going to happen here,) and serve with soda water or where Sirop-de-Citron is called for.

Comparing the Monin and home-made, it is really apparent the Monin syrup has been pumped up with Ascorbic Acid.  It is pretty extreme in it’s lemon flavor.  The home made is more natural tasting, though with a bit of a bitter after taste from the inclusion of the pith in maceration.  For those very picky about bitterness, I did find some fancy pants, pastry chef type recipes which zest the lemon peel, juice the lemons, and use this to create the syrup.  Personally, I don’t mind the bitter after taste, and hope it lends some zip to drinks like the Big Boy, Clayton’s, Filmograph, Marvel, Pink Baby, and Re-Vigorator.

To continue with the punch, maybe I should compare the beer making and punch making processes, and see if I can find parallels.

My rough understanding of the beer making process:

1) Grains are malted, which means they are allowed to sprout and begin to transform complex carbohydrates into sugars for use by the growing plant.

2) Malted Grains are dried and milled.

3) Malted Grains are slowly cooked in water to form a sweet solution (aka Wort). 

4) Solids are removed from the solution, and the boil is continued. Hops, or other flavoring agents, may also be added to this solution at various points, for flavor and alleged preservative qualities.

4) Microorganisms (typically yeast) are introduced to the solution.

5) Microorganisms consume the sugars producing flavor, Carbon Dioxide, and, more importantly, alcohol.

6) The solution is racked off, maybe fined or filtered, and bottled in sealed containers, where it continues to ferment and produce alcohol, flavors and now most importantly, Carbon Dioxide.  The Carbon Dioxide, with nowhere else to go, pressurized the containers and dissolves in the beer producing carbonation.

Pop the top!  I’m thirsty!

Anyway, the whole Malting, Milling, and filtering off solids process is too much of a pain for most home brewers and many commercial brewers.  They instead buy “Malt Extract” or “Malt Syrup” and start at step 4.

Punch Making Process:

1) A sweet flavored solution, also known as sherbet, is created by macerating and steeping flavoring agents in sugar and hot water.

2) The sherbet is combined with booze and citrus and allowed to mingle for a period.

2a) If this is a Milk Punch, the combined booze, sherbet, and citrus mixture will be fined by adding warm milk to the solution.  The milk solidifies into curd, which is then removed, leaving the elements of the milk whey behind in the punch.

3) The punch solution is chilled.

4) The punch solution is diluted with water, soda, or champagne and served over ice.

As I mentioned, my e-quaintance Rob DeNunzio had previously experimented with making what he hoped would be a cocktail-like beer.

In addition, the theme of the upcoming dinner is “Italian Modernist” brewers.  Italian brewers who are re-inventing what might be considered beer by many folks.  Chestnut flavored beer, beers made with flowers and herbs, beers that nearly resemble negronis in their flavor profiles.

When Alex pestered me about making punch for the dinner, I think he just wanted some serious booze at a very beery party.

But when I started thinking about it, what could I do that would be in fitting with the theme?  Stretch the idea of punch?

The first thing that occurred to me was beers like Chouffe’s N’Ice, practically a beer punch already, with its candy sugar, coriander, and curacao orange peels.

What if I went about it from the other direction?

Starting from my Bernal Heights Milk Punch I made some beer-like substitutions.

First I’m going to infuse (dry hop) the booze with hops. I’m also going to replace the tea in the sweetening syrup with hops. I’ll replace a portion of the sweetener with Barley Malt. Last, I’ll skew the flavoring spices towards those often used in some Belgian beers.

—

Cali-Belgique Pisco Punch. (with apologies to Stone Brewing)

750ml Marion Farms Biodynamic Pisco Style Brandy.
750ml Barbancourt White Rhum.
375ml Batavia Arrack.
1 Pineapple, chopped
6 lemons, peeled and juiced.
1 Quart Straus Family Creamery Whole Milk.
1 Pint Water.
8 teaspoons Cascade Hops.
4 pieces dried Clemetine Peel.
20 Whole Coriander Seeds, crushed.
8 Whole Cloves, crushed.
1/2 stick Cassia Cinnamon, crushed.
1/2 Pound Sugar.
1/4 Pound Malted Barley Syrup.

Place lemon peels in sealed container with rum and batavia arrack. Infuse for 48 hours.

Place pineapple in sealed container with Pisco and juice 4 lemons. Infuse for 24 hours.

Add 4 teaspoon hops to pineapple mixture and shake. Infuse for another 24 hours.

Boil water to a simmer and pour over 4 teaspoons hops, dried clementine peels, cloves, and cinnamon. Dissolve sugar and barley syrup in spiced solution. Cool and allow to stand for 24 hours.

Bring milk to 140-150 degrees F. Pour Pisco off of pineapple, attempting to squeeze as much juice/booze out of the fruit as possible. Pour warm milk into flavored Pisco, cover, and allow to stand for a half an hour or so.

Disturbing curd as little as possible, pour milk and pisco through a fine sieve.

At this point it will look kind of like “louched” absinthe. Filter again through a double layer of cheesecloth.

Remove peels from rum mixture and pour into pisco. Pour flavored syrup through fine sieve into mixture.

Pour all off into clean sealable containers and allow to stand at least 24 hours.

Rack punch off of any settled milk solids and filter through coffee filter or similar.

Bottle in clean sealable containers and chill.

Serve over ice or with a splash of soda.

—

About half way through this process, it occurred to me that I was making a compounded, flavored malt and alcohol beverage.  Oh wait, isn’t that what Zima was?

I mentioned this to Rob and his reply was, “And just think? If it does turn out like Zima, you’ll be filling the sad vacuum it left behind.”

Well, it doesn’t taste like Zima, that’s for sure.

The longer steep time for the spices put those out front. A slight underestimation of the sweetening power of Malted Barley tips this punch towards the sweet side. The use of lighter alcohol makes this seem like, “wait, does it actually have any alcohol?” I could have sworn I put some in…

Oh right, the legendary dangerously drinkable Pisco Punch. See you next week.

When I last saw Alex he bugged me about making punch for an upcoming beer and food dinner we are both attending.

My initial intention was simply to make a batch of the Bernal Heights Milk Punch I’ve been making, but with Pisco instead of Brandy.

However, when I was thinking about the theme of the dinner, I remembered that the host had previously experimented with creating a beer that shared some characteristics with cocktails.

Old-fashioned Home Brewing

Gold Fashioned

Which got me thinking, isn’t turn about fair play?  What if I made a punch that shared some of the characteristics of beer and brought it to the dinner?

I have hops purchased with the intention of creating a hop bitters.

I have barley malt due to my obsession with obscure and unusual sweeteners.

Aren’t there some beers that share the characteristics of Punch?

Punch allegedly is a similar word to the Hindu word for “5″ or “hand”.  Supposedly “five” or “hand” signifies the 5 elements of punch:

1. Strong (booze!)
2. Sweet (sugar)
3. Sour (citrus)
4. Weak (tea, water, wine, and/or ice)
5. Spice (usually coriander, clove, cinnamon, or cardamom)

Wait a sec? I could almost be describing a Belgian Beer!  Well, OK, a belgian beer and a shot.  But still.

There might be something there!

Amazingly, I’ve been making versions of this recipe for over 2 years now!

Latest version, this one distinguished by presence of actual Sorrento Lemons!

Underhill Punsch, January 2009

2 cups Appleton V/X Rum
1 cup Batavia Arrack
2 cup hot extra strong spiced tea (4 tsp Peet’s Yunnan Fancy Tea, 6 crushed cardamom pods, brewed in 2 cup water)
2 cup raw or natural sugar
2 Sorrento lemons sliced thinly, seeds removed

Put sliced lemons in a resealable non-reactive container large enough to hold 4 cups of liquid. Pour Rum and Batavia Arrack over citrus. Cover and steep for 6 hours.

Dissolve sugar in hot tea and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate.

After 6 hours, pour rum off of sliced citrus, without squeezing fruit.

Combine tea syrup and flavored rum. Filter and bottle in a clean sealable container. Rest 24 hours and enjoy where Swedish Punch is called for.

Say a Boomerang, Biffy or even a Diki-Diki, if you are feeling brave.

Anyone got any other favorite uses for Swedish Punsch?

I made my first attempt at an aperitif wine the other day, aiming for Cocchi Americano or Kina Lillet.

I bought 2 1/2 bottles of reasonably priced Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine, brought it to 140 degrees and added 1 cup of sugar.  Stirred to dissolve.

Then I added the spice tinctures I’d previously made, starting with a touch, and tasting and adding.

I finally ended up with the following amounts, where I started to be able to perceive the earthy flavors of the Quinine and Gentian tinctures in the wine:

2 TBSP Seville Orange Tincture
2 TBSP Mexican Cinnamon Tincture
2 tsp. Gentian Tincture
2 tsp. Wormwood Tincture
3 tsp. Quinine Tincture
1/2 Cup Spanish Brandy

Cooled, poured it back into the bottles, rested for a day, and tried it.

My initial reaction is I got closer to Jean de Lillet than Cocchi Americano. Admittedly, it doesn’t have any Sauterne in the wine blend, so there is no botrytized character, as in the Jean de Lillet.

Challenges: It’s really hard to judge how something warm will taste chilled or in cocktails. I would have had to use much more of the spice tinctures to get close to Cocchi Americano.  It’s tempting to just mull the spices in the warm wine.  But that will make fining or filtering much more challenging.

The Wine was also a weird pick. Muscat Canelli or similar would be a typical choice for the wine base of a vermouth. But I was feeling completely uninspired by my choices of California Muscat. Loire whites are just some of my favorite wines.

A pretty good first try, I think. Everyone who has tried it has been quite complementary. Still, it isn’t what I was hoping for.

Bonus: At the grocery store on the way home they had Sorrento Lemons!  Picked up a couple and it was just the spur I needed to start a new batch of Swedish Punsch.  And yes, Rowley, this time I will make your Lemon Punsch Pie with the leftover sliced lemons.

As it is ice cream season, here are a couple drinky sorbet recipes I’ve had good luck serving at parties.

Don’t push the amount of alcohol, or you’ll end up with slushies instead of sorbet.

Mojito Sorbet

1 cup sugar
2 cups water
5 sprigs of mint
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/8 cup rum
Zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons mint chiffonade

Makes 4-6 servings.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Add the mint sprigs; stir until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand approximately 10 minutes.

Place a fine strainer over a large bowl and pour syrup mixture through (straining out the mint). Add lime juice, rum, and lime zest to the strained syrup mixture and stir to combine. Chill.

If you have an ice cream maker, process according to manufacturers instructions. About 5 minutes before it is finished processing, add the mint chiffonade to the freezing mixture. Store in a sealed container in the freezer.

If you do not have an ice cream maker, chill an stainless steel or pyrex pan in your freezer. The sorbet mixture should not come up more than an inch along the side of the pan. Add mixture to pan, and stir with a fork every hour until well frozen. After it freezes process in batches in a blender or food processor, stir in mint chiffonade, and store in a sealed container in the freezer.

—

Moro Decay Sorbet

1 c Sugar
1 c Water
1 c Moro Blood Orange Juice
1/8 c Bourbon
Zest of 2 Moro Blood Oranges
1 tsp. Angostura Bitters

Makes 4-6 servings.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Cool.

Zest oranges into bourbon and stir to combine. Add blood orange juice, bitters and cooled syrup. Chill.

Strain mixture through cheesecloth and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

If you have an ice cream maker, process according to manufacturers instructions.

If you do not have an ice cream maker, chill an stainless steel or pyrex pan in your freezer. The sorbet mixture should not come up more than an inch along the side of the pan. Add mixture to pan, and stir with a fork every hour until well frozen. After it freezes, process in batches in a blender or food processor and store in a sealed container in the freezer.

Since someone asked me about this, I thought I should write it up.

You may have noted I used Apricot Kernels in my Orgeat.

A friend asked, “so the cyanide from the apricot kernels isn’t a problem in the orgeat?”

First, let me say I’m not a scientist or a doctor. Please take anything I say here as simply conclusions and choices I have drawn for myself. Make your own choices and draw your own conclusions.

I will note that the seeds (and other parts) of all members of the rose family (Rosacea) contain cyanogenic glycosides. This plant family includes apricots, almonds, cherries, plums, peaches, apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, and about 2,900 other plant species, On ingestion cyanogenic glycosides release hydrogen cyanide into your system. The amounts of these chemicals vary from plant to plant and species to species. Bitter almonds generally contain the most. Eating 50-70 bitter almonds in one sitting is enough to be potentially fatal for an adult human.

Fortunately, in most people, these chemicals are rapidly broken down by your liver, and do not build up over time. Small doses are apt to do no damage.

Just to be clear, we take in many potentially deadly chemicals every day. Caffeine and Alcohol are prime examples. For the most part, if we partake in relative moderation, our body cleans these potential poisons out with little consequence.

Apricot kernels have a flavor similar to the one we associate with the almond extract made from bitter almonds. Making Orgeat without almond extract or apricot kernels results in a taste that is mostly nutty and a bit meaty. None of that nice cherry-ish top note.

In my batch I used about 2 ounces of apricot kernels to make what amounted to a gallon of syrup. This was probably 20 apricot kernels. If you sat down and ate all 20 to 30 apricot kernels at once, you might be in trouble. However, dissolved in what amounts to over a gallon of syrup, I’m not worried.

However, if you’re prone to worry or a bit paranoid about your health, feel free to skip the apricot kernels and just use almond extract.

Myself, I’m kind of interested in bumping the percentage of apricot kernels used, in the hopes of being able to skip the almond extract altogether.

Additional Reading:

Are Apricot Seeds Poisonous? (The Straight Dope)
Yes, Apple Seeds and Cherry Pits are Poisonous(Anne Marie’s Chemistry Blog)

Thought I’d write up the main points from my presentation at Tales of the Cocktail.

Our panel was about Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredients.

The ingredients I covered were Swedish Punsch and Orgeat.

Four Main Reasons to Make Homemade Liqueurs and Syrups

1) Preservation. You’ve got a tree full of walnuts and the squirrels will eat them if you don’t do something with them.

2) Curiosity. When I first heard about Nocino, I was like, “Green walnut liqueur, how can that possibly work?” Green walnuts are incredibly bitter and stain anything they touch black. Then I continued reading, a bitter liqueur almost like an amaro. Cool. It can only be made during a month long window in the spring. Even cooler. It has to age for 40 days on the walnuts, and then another 40 days after sweetening before you can even drink it. The obscurist in me was fascinated. I knew I had to make it.

3) The products you want to use to make a particular cocktail are discontinued or incredibly hard to come by.

4) The easily available commercial products are not of the desired quality or at the desired cost.

A Few Rules

I have a few rules for myself when making liqueurs and syrups. First all ingredients are organic or no-spray. Preferably the fruit comes straight from the Farm or Farmers’ Market, no refrigeration. I only use Washed Raw Sugar or other natural sweeteners for all syrups or liqueurs.

Things to Consider

Before you embark on making liqueurs or syrups, you should be aware of some of the pitfalls.

First, they may not be cheaper than the commercial products you are replacing. Second, there’s a pretty good chance of failure at some point. Unless you can choke a failed liqueur down, there’s a pretty good chance you may pour a fair amount of ingredients, money, and spirits down the sink.

In addition, commercial producers have certain advantages over home producers of liqueurs and syrups.

They may have high quality, high proof base spirits to make their liqueurs from. Volume production allows commercial producers certain advantages. Purchasing liqueurs and syrups on the shelf guarantees you consistency and availability.

So to summarize, it isn’t a bad idea to pick a fight you can win.

Syrups, especially, are a great area where homemade can be fresher tasting and more interesting. The odds of you making an orange liqueur that is better than Cointreau or Grand Marnier, on the other hand, are pretty darn slim.

Orgeat

The OED gives the origin of the word Orgeat as the Latin word for Barley, “Hordeum”.

The first known published use of a related word in an English Text referred to a type of Barley used to make a beverage. This was some time around 1500.

The first known published use of “Orgeat” referring to a sweetened Barley, Melon Seed, and Almond Syrup was in J. Nott’s “Cook and Confectionary Dictionary” in 1723.

That the word “Orgeat” referrs to barley rather than almonds, suggests to me that Orgeat belongs to the family of steeped grain beverages common in nearly every civilization. The Egyptians had a beverage based on Sedge Kernels. The Spanish make beverages based on Sedge Kernels and rice. The English had Barley Water. The Scots made Oat Water. American Indians had whole classes of beverages based on corn. I’d imagine you could go so far as to include things like soy milk and some of the thin rice based gruels often served in Asia.

Let’s face it, grinding grain and boiling or steeping it in water is the easiest way to get some nutritional value from it. And if you really want to blow your mind, realize that if you add yeast to a thin solution, you get beer. If you add yeast to a thicker mix of finely ground flour, you get bread. If you make a thick paste and then cook it on a griddle, it is a tortilla or a cracker.

That’s how important these grain beverages are to civilization.

Making Orgeat

I’ve covered making Orgeat in a couple articles already on the blog, Orgeat–Tales Version and Orgeat? Almond Fudge?, so I won’t cover instructions in too much detail.

It is a bit of a pain, but really fairly simple. Crush almonds. Steep them in water. Strain out the solids. Sweeten the resulting liquid. But, as with all “simple” things, the devil is in the details. How are the almonds crushed? How long do they steep? How do you remove the solids? How sweet?

Aside from Tiki Drinks, like the Mai Tai and Fog Cutter, some well known drinks with Orgeat include the Japanese, the Momisette, Cameron’s Kick, and the famous New Orleans breakfast drink, Absinthe Suisesse.

Swedish Punsch

Swedish Punsch is a Batavia Arrack based liqueur popular in, obviously, Sweden. It hasn’t been commercially available in the US since the 1950s or 1960s. Until fairly recently, the only real way to get it was if you, or a friend, traveled to Sweden. Fortunately, in the last year or so, Haus Alpenz had begun selling a Batavia Arrack in the US, so it is now possible for the home enthusiast or bartender to make their own. Also, fortunately, the taxes in Scandinavia are so high, that there is a thriving home made liqueur and distillation tradition there, making it not too hard to come across recipes for Arrack Punsch of one sort or another.

Going through a few recipes, the traditional ingredients are: Batavia Arrack, Tea, Sugar, Spices, and some sour element. The sour element is usually some sort of citrus, but I’ve also seen recipes which include wine.

Most commercial Swedish Punsch, like the Carlshamm’s Flagg Punsch, are very lightly spiced and heavily sweetened. The couple I’ve tried are really more just Arrack Liqueur than anything else. There is a bit more variety and spice among the home recipes.

Making Punsch

As noted previously, for my homemade punsch, I usually employ two of Jerry Thomas’ Arrack Punch recipes in a sort of mash up. His Imperial Arrack Punch and United Service Punch. For details of the most recent version check this post: Underhill Punsch–Tales Version.

Steep thinly sliced citrus briefly in the spirit(s). At the same time, make an extra strong batch of tea. After making the tea, remove the tea leaves and sweeten with an equal volume of sugar. After the tea has cooled, remove the citrus from the liquor, and combine the tea syrup and infused spirits. Rest for at least 24 hours.

A few cocktails including Swedish Punsch are the Biffy, Boomerang, C.F.H., Diki-Diki, Doctor, Hundred Per Cent, Tanglefoot, and Welcome Stranger.

Other sources:

Orgeat Syrup article on Darcy O’Neil’s Art of Drink Website.
Orgeat article on Scottes’ Rum Pages.
Homeade Orgeat Syrup (French Barley Water) article on FXcuisine.
Orgeat, on eGullet.org.
Haus Alpenz
Swedish Punsch, A Source, on eGullet.org.

This time I’m following Francois Xavier’s Orgeat procedure from this blog post:

Homemade Orgeat Syrup (French Barley Water)

(My favorite part of the lovely pictures which accompany the recipe is that the author appears to be making orgeat in his/her pajamas.)

550 grams blanched and roughly chopped almond & (optional) apricot kernels
150 grams blanched and finely minced almonds & (optional) apricot kernels
3 litres of water
about 9 pounds of sugar (I like Florida Crystals)
1 cup Brandy or Cognac (I used Osocalis California Brandy)
2 teaspoons Orange Flower Water
1/4 oz Natural Almond Extract per litre

This makes a bit more than 4 litres (or a gallon.)
Special equipment: scale, cheesecloth, candy thermometer

To blanch almonds (thanks Paul!): Purchase whole raw almond (and optionally apricot) kernels. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Quickly bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water. Put on some good music, and rub the skins off each almond. It took me about the length of Nick Cave’s excellent new CD “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!” to remove the skins from 856 grams of almonds.

In regards Almond and Apricot Kernels, I had a bit over 2 pounds of Almonds and 2 ounces of Apricot kernels to start with. They were mixed together to blanch, so I’m not exactly sure how much of each ended up in the final mix.

Roughly chop 550 grams almonds with a big knife. Finely chop 150 grams of almonds with a big knife.

Add almonds and 600 grams of sugar to a pot. Add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, cool, and leave to rest for 12 hours. Because I am paranoid, I put it in the fridge.

Strain through cheesecloth or, even better, a coarse nylon straining bag (available from beer supply stores).

Wash and sanitize the bottles you will be using to store your syrup. I don’t have a dish washer, so I wash them, rinse them, then place them in a cold oven. Turn the temperature to 200 degrees. When it reaches 200, I leave them in for 15 minutes. Kind of like an autoclave.

Weigh the strained liquid.

For every 500 grams of strained liquid, add 700 grams of sugar. My liquid weighed 2774 grams, so I added around 3500 grams of sugar.

Put the pot over low heat, and heat to dissolve sugar. Interestingly, Francois Xavier recommends not to boil it, as this may turn your orgeat into caramel. I brought it to the recommended 40 Centigrade and kept it there for about 15 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Leave the orgeat to cool. Then add the brandy, orange flower water, and almond extract.

Pour into the clean bottles.

Also, as Francis Xavier notes, “Real orgeat syrup will split after a few days in a thick, solid white layer of almond powder on top and syrup below. This is normal and happens with quality bought orgeat syrup such as the one I used to buy from Hédiard in Paris. All you need is insert a skewer in the bottle to break the top layer a bit, close and shake. This is really part of the fun in this product and a hallmark of quality orgeat syrup.”

Interestingly, perhaps because I am using florida crystals natural cane sugar, my orgeat came out even darker than Francois’.

Anyway, the best part about this recipe, is that you run almost no risk of over processing your almonds. With a food processor or a blender, it is very, very easy to start making almond butter, as I did last time. Almond fudge is cool, but it doesn’t really work for cocktails. Besides, unless you’re handicapped or suffering from carpal tunnel, there’s really no compelling reason to use a food processor for this small an amount of almonds.

In the quest to make a Swedish Punch Clone, I had combined two Jerry Thomas recipes and made a variation using Sri Lankan Arrack. While interesting, I later discovered it wasn’t very Similar to Swedish Punch.

I re-used the same procedure recently using Batavia Arrack.

This was what I did:

Underhill Punsch II

1 cup Appleton V/X Rum
1/2 cup Batavia Arrack
1 cup hot extra strong tea (2 tsp Peet’s Lung Ching Dragonwell tea brewed in 1 cup water)
1 cup sugar
1 lemon sliced thinly, seeds removed
1 lime sliced thinly, seeds removed

Put sliced lemon and lime in a resealable non-reactive container large enough to hold 4 cups of liquid. Pour Rum and Batavia Arrack over citrus. Cover and steep for 6 hours.

Dissolve sugar in hot tea and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate.

After 6 hours, pour rum off of sliced citrus, without squeezing fruit.

Combine tea syrup and flavored rum. Filter and bottle in a clean sealable container. Age at least overnight and enjoy where Swedish Punch is called for.

The interaction between the Chinese green tea and the lime gives this an interesting flavor. One person who tried it compared it to the bitter greens they’d just had in their salad. Just on its own, at room temperature, this is a little much, as the intense bitter lime aftertaste tends to linger on the palate. Over ice, though, it is quite a pleasant beverage. I’m going to be interested to see how this variation mixes.