1881 American and Other Drinks (second edition) Hard cover by Leo Engel

I^iiiencira aitir

PUNCH.

There is a fine old English poet who enlightens us by saying that

" Punch cures the Gout, the Cholic, and the Phthisic, And it is to all men the very best of Physic."

If it really possess the wonderful powers ascribed to it, of which we have no reason to doubt,it becomes us, in the first place, to say how to make this delicious beverage in perfection. When you have carefully selected som-e lemons or limes, their ambrosial essence must be extracted by rubbing lumps of sugar on the rind, which break the delicate little vessels that contain the per fume and, at the same time, absorb it. The great secret in Punch brewing is to make the mixture sweet and strong, using tea instead of water, and so thoroughly amalgamating all the com pounds that the taste of neither the bitter, the sweet,the spirit, nor the element shall be perceptible one over the other. Should you wish to make hot Punch, you put in the spirits before the water; and if cold Punch,then the water or tea first.