Drinks by theme

Historic Punch Recipes, From the Punch Bowl to the Dry Party

Historic punch recipes from the books that printed them: Franklin’s milk punch, Fish House Punch, Planter’s Punch, hot punch and alcohol-free punch bowls.

Updated October 28, 2026

William Hogarth, A Midnight Modern Conversation (1733), engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain.

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Slightly hazy amber rum punch in a heavy tumbler beside an empty stemmed measure, lemon half and cream jug on a worn pale wooden table in a gray-walled room.

Punches & Cups · 10 min total

Planter’s Punch as Fun Printed It in Verse (1878)

One wine-glass of lemon juice, two of sugar, three of rum and four of cold water: Planter’s Punch as the London weekly Fun printed it in verse in 1878.

Pale gold punch with one rectangular ice block and a silver ladle fills a plain glass bowl beside three punch cups, two filled and one empty, two lemon halves and a glass juicer on a mahogany sideboard against a deep green wall.

Punches & Cups · 15 min total

Philadelphia Fish House Punch, Cognac, Peach Brandy and Rum from 1862

Lemon juice and sugar with Cognac, peach brandy and Jamaica rum, lengthened with plenty of cold water and served over ice: the Philadelphia Fish-House Punch of Jerry Thomas’s 1862 bar guide.

A blue-and-white porcelain punch bowl of pale yellow lemon sherbet with a silver ladle, beside a small wooden strainer, three squeezed lemon halves and two lime wedges, on a dark oak table against a deep blue wall.

Alcohol-free version

Punches & Cups · 15 min total

Glasgow Sherbet, the Punch Before the Rum

Sugar melted in cold water, a dozen lemons’ juice strained in, the bowl filled with the coldest water and finished with limes: Glasgow punch as it was tasted before the rum.

What is punch made of?

Spirit, citrus, sugar and water, mixed in a bowl for the whole table. The spirit changed, from brandy to rum to whisky, and the water could be hot, cold or tea, but those four parts held for two centuries.

In 1710 William Salmon’s Family Dictionary, a London household book, printed “Punch Orthodox, or Royal”: brandy and spring water, a pint of lime juice and a pound of the finest sugar, which he called “a Noble Cordial” that “exceeds all other Punch whatsoever.” In the Caribbean, William Dampier saw ships at the salt ponds of La Tortuga “always well stored with Rum, Sugar and Lime-juice to make Punch.” In 1763 Benjamin Franklin sent a friend in Massachusetts a receipt for punch cleared with boiling milk, six quarts of brandy and the rinds of forty-four lemons, to be bottled and kept.

The bowl was a party in itself. At a Glasgow merchant’s dinner in 1819, John Gibson Lockhart watched the guests nearest the bowl taste the sherbet of lemons, sugar and cold water and approve it before a drop of rum went in. Jerry Thomas’s bar guide of 1862 gave a whole run of punches, from Philadelphia’s Fish House Punch to a tea punch set alight, and in 1878 the London weekly Fun put Planter’s Punch into verse: one wine-glass of lemon juice, two of sugar, three of rum and four of cold water.

Punch also made the dry party work. The temperance hostesses of the 1920s filled their bowls with weak tea, citrus and ginger ale. Each recipe gives its source, and the alcohol-free ones say whether they are period drinks or our own versions.

A Noble Cordial, and exceeds all other Punch whatsoever.

William Salmon, The Family Dictionary (London, 1710), on Punch Royal

What was in the original punch?

Spirit, citrus, sugar and water for a crowd, from Salmon’s lime punch of 1710 to Planter’s Punch of 1878. Franklin cleared his with milk and bottled it.

Pale cloudy amber punch in a blue-and-white earthenware bowl with a pewter ladle and two short-stem glasses, beside three lime halves and a white sugar cone on dark oak.

Punches & Cups · 1 hr 10 min total

Punch Royal, the 1710 Lime and Brandy Punch

Brandy, spring water, a pint of lime juice and a pound of double-refined sugar: William Salmon’s strong lime punch of 1710, from the years of Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts.

Clear pale golden milk punch in a tall-stemmed conical wine glass and a small loop-handled punch cup, beside a squat dark green corked bottle and a nutmeg on a brass grater, on white linen over mahogany before green paneling.

Punches & Cups · 1 day 5 hr total

Benjamin Franklin’s Milk Punch

Brandy steeped with lemon peel, then nutmeg, lemon, sugar and boiling milk, dripped clear through a jelly bag and bottled: Franklin’s 1763 receipt at a twelfth of the size.

An oval-paneled pressed-glass tumbler of ivory milk punch with crushed ice and nutmeg stands beside a white milk jug on a pale oak sideboard against a dark green wall.

Cocktails & Mixed Drinks · 5 min total

Milk Punch, Brandy and Rum Shaken with Milk

A wine-glass of Cognac and half as much St. Croix rum, shaken with sugar, shaved ice and milk to fill the glass, topped with nutmeg: Jerry Thomas’s Milk Punch of 1862, eggnog without the egg.

How do you make hot punch?

With boiling water or hot tea in place of cold water, poured over the spirit, sugar and lemon. Victorians drank their Christmas punch this way.

A broad white china bowl with a blue floral border, two-thirds full of clear amber-brown punch flecked with nutmeg, with a silver ladle, beside three handled pressed-glass cups, two of them filled, and half a squeezed lemon on a saucer, on a polished wooden side table against cream paneling.

Punches & Cups · 10 min total

Mrs. Beeton’s Hot Punch, Rum and Brandy with Lemon

Equal parts rum and brandy, sugar rubbed on a lemon, nutmeg and a pint of boiling water, mixed in a punchbowl: the hot punch of Mrs. Beeton’s 1861 book.

A pewter bowl and two clear handled cups hold amber tea punch beside a partly rubbed lemon and sugar cubes on mahogany against navy blue.

Punches & Cups · 15 min total

Tea Punch, Green Tea, Brandy and Rum from 1862

A quart of strong green tea poured into hot brandy, rum, lump sugar rubbed on lemon peel and lemon juice: Jerry Thomas’s 1862 tea punch, once served alight.

What is the difference between a punch and a cup?

A cup was the Victorian summer cousin: wine or cider lengthened with soda water and ice, lighter than a spirit punch. Escoffier froze his punch into an ice served mid-dinner.

A glass jug of bright ruby claret cup with blue borage flowers and strips of lemon peel stands with three stemmed glasses and a jug of amber iced tea on white linen in the dappled shade of a tree.

Punches & Cups · 1 hr 10 min total

Claret Cup, Iced Claret with Soda and Borage

Claret chilled with lemon peel and sugar, then sherry, brandy, noyau, maraschino, borage and soda water: the claret cup of the Edwardian tennis tea, from 1906.

A glass jug of pale golden sparkling cider with crushed white ice and a single cucumber slice stands beside two small stemmed glasses with ice, on white linen in a sunny garden.

Punches & Cups · 40 min total

Cider Cup à la Ensor

Sparkling cider with curaçao, brandy, rock sugar, lemon and a slice of cucumber, poured over shaved ice and served at once: a summer cider cup from 1869, at half quantity.

What is a good old-fashioned non-alcoholic punch?

Lemons, sugar and cold water, the Glasgow sherbet before the rum, or the 1920s dry party bowl of tea, citrus and ginger ale. All four are alcohol-free.

A plain glass bowl of pale amber ginger ale punch with a mostly submerged block of ice and thin orange slices, beside four small glass punch cups, two filled.

Always alcohol-free

Punches & Cups · 50 min total

Ginger Ale Punch for a Dry Party

Weak tea, sugar, orange and lemon juice over a block of ice, topped with ginger ale and sparkling water at the last minute: a Prohibition party punch.

A white china bowl of pale golden tea punch holds lemon rounds and a ladle beside a white teapot and cup on pale wood against a terracotta wall.

Alcohol-free version

Punches & Cups · 15 min total

Alcohol-Free Tea Punch, Green Tea, Lemon and Sugar

The green tea, lump sugar rubbed on lemon peel and lemon juice of Jerry Thomas’s 1862 tea punch, with hot water in place of the brandy and rum, served from a warm bowl.

One small short-stemmed glass heaped with creamy white frozen Punch Romaine on a plain white plate beside a silver teaspoon, on pale oak before a pale blue-gray wall.

Alcohol-free version

Punches & Cups · 4 hr total

Alcohol-Free Punch Romaine with White Grape Juice

Escoffier’s half-frozen Punch à la Romaine without the wine or rum: white grape juice, orange and lemon steeped in syrup, churned to a soft ice and lightened with Italian meringue.

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