Garden Party Punch

Ingredients

• 600 ml Juliet Gin
• 200 ml fresh lemon juice
• 150 ml cherry reduction
• 100 ml elderflower liqueur
• 600 ml cold Prosecco
• 400 ml soda water
• oleo saccharum from 4 lemons
• large ice block for the bowl

Method

Batch build. Serve in a Punch bowl / individual punch glasses. Garnish with Lemon wheels + cherries + mint.

Cherry reduction: simmer 200g cherries with 150g sugar, 100ml water. Oleo saccharum: peel lemons, cover peel in 4 tbsp sugar, let sit 30 min until oils release.

The story

Punch — the original communal drink — predates the cocktail by centuries. David Wondrich's Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl traces the drink back to the English East India Company in the early 1600s, where sailors discovered that combining arrack, citrus, sugar, spice, and water created something greater than any of its parts. Punch is the party in a bowl. This gin punch is calibrated to serve twelve — scale as needed. The lemon-cherry character of Juliet Gin makes this a naturally spring-facing drink. A day before the party, make the oleo saccharum (citrus oils expressed into sugar) and the cherry reduction. Day-of assembly is five minutes. The result looks and tastes like considerably more effort than that.

Tasting note

Festive, lush, and balanced — cherry and lemon from the gin, effervescence from the Prosecco, and enough herbal depth from the elderflower to keep things interesting across twelve servings.