Friday, January 28, 2011

skipper's punch

1 1/2 oz Myer's Dark Rum
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Brown Sugar Syrup
1/4 oz Lime Juice

Add to an Irish Coffee Mug and stir to mix. Fill with ~3 oz of hot water.

Sticking with Benedictine, another winter appropriate drink caught my eye on the Green Street menu, the Skipper's Punch. Unlike the thick and rich Fort Washington Flip, the punch was a Hot Toddy. When I asked bartender Derric Crothers about the origin of this drink, he went and asked owner Dylan Black. Dylan replied that it was a combination of two drinks from the Esquire's Handbook for Hosts. Given the name and the similarity of ingredients, one of these drinks had to have been the Skipper's Particular:
Skipper's Particular
• 1 pint Jamaica Rum
• 1/2 pint Cognac
• 2 oz Kümmel
• 2 oz Benedictine
• Rind of 1 Lemon
• Rind of 1 Orange
• 3 pint Hot water
• Sugar to taste
The recipe was very similar to the book's Hot Rum Punch which calls for Puerto Rican rum instead of Jamaican, allows for lime peel instead of lemon, and includes a sliced lemon or lime to the mix. To simplify the recipe, Dylan removed the Cognac, Kümmel, and citrus peels; moreover, he used a rather dark Jamaican rum, increased the amount of Benedictine, and added a dash of lime juice.
The Skipper's Punch greeted the nose with a steamy lime and rum aroma; with only a small amount of lime juice in the recipe, the heat must have acted to accelerate the perception of the citrus. On the tongue, the sip was all about the dark rum and brown sugar flavors, while the swallow contained the lime and the Benedictine's spice. Unlike many Hot Toddies, the Skipper's Punch did not assault my senses with a hot alcohol burn but still made for a rather flavorful drink.

1 comment:

HayBoy said...

thanks for this recipe. was delicious as a cold saturday afternoon pick-me-up and has instantly become my "house hot toddie"