Friday, December 30, 2011

fifth avenue hotel ice punch

1 1/2 oz Peach, Orange, or Cognac Brandy (Martell VS)
1 1/2 oz Rum (Plantation 5 Year Barbados)
1 1/2 oz Curaçao (Senior Curaçao)
1 1/2 oz Currant or Guava Jelly (Guava)
1 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Peel of 1 Lemon
Sugar (1/2 oz)

Create an oleo saccharum by muddling the sugar into the lemon peel; let sit for up to an hour (10 minutes). I added 1 oz of water and the guava jelly to this, heated via microwave, and stirred until the sugar and the jelly's pectin were dissolved. Let cool, add rest of ingredients and ice, shake, and strain into glasses containing crushed ice. Garnish with berries in season (orange slices and a Maraschino cherry) and straws. Recipe serves 2.

After returning home from Trina's Starlite Lounge, I decided to make an old recipe, the Fifth Avenue Hotel Ice Punch, I had found in The Gentleman's Table Guide from 1871. The Fifth Avenue Hotel that the name most likely makes reference to was a luxury hotel built in 1859 on Fifth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets in Manhattan. The hotel until it closed in 1908 was frequently described as a center of the city's elite.
The punch's sip had a rich mouthfeel from the jelly's pectin and had a complex citrus flavor of lemon from the juice, orange from the curaçao, and lime from the guava. The swallow's rum and Cognac notes rounded out the drink. The recipe seemed similar to a Sidecar with the brandy, lemon juice, and orange liqueur; however, the guava, much more than the rum, took the drink in a very different direction. Overall, the drink was a bit sweet, but I included the recipe's additional sugar so I could make the oleo saccharum (which was not specified in the recipe, and the peel could have been muddled, infused, or shaken with the ice cubes instead).

2 comments:

DJ HawaiianShirt said...

What is this "orange brandy" that it calls for?

frederic said...

That is confusing. If it is meant to be similar to peach brandy, then it is brandy made from oranges. I know that there is orange wine, so making a distillate of it is not too far off.

If they meant an orange-brandy liqueur like Grand Marnier, that would be much sweeter.

Since both peach brandy and Cognac are dry, I have to assume it was some orange eau de vie (aged or unaged). And something that did not make it far out of the 19th century.