Amber punch with two lemon slices and a clear glass straw beside a small corked brown bottle and a vanilla pod on a dark bar. — Vanilla punch over shaved ice with lemon slices and a glass straw, beside a bottle of vanilla extract.

Vanilla Punch, Brandy, Lemon and Vanilla from 1887

Name: Vanilla Brandy Punch
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 tbsp superfine sugar; 2 fl oz brandy; 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (1/4 lemon); 1 1/2 cups shaved or finely crushed ice; 2 thin lemon slices, to finish; 3 drops pure vanilla extract

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A wine-glass of brandy with a spoonful of sugar and a squeeze of lemon, shaken with shaved ice, dressed with lemon slices and finished with a few drops of vanilla: the Vanilla Punch of Jerry Thomas’s 1887 bar guide.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished November 3, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink
Prep: 3 min
Total: 3 min

Jump to recipe Read the story

Vanilla punch over shaved ice with lemon slices and a glass straw, beside a bottle of vanilla extract.

The story behind the recipe

Vanilla Punch is a brandy punch for one glass, with the vanilla added at the very end: a few drops on top after the shaking, over a couple of lemon slices. Jerry Thomas printed it in the 1887 edition of his Bar-Tender’s Guide, and it is the only drink on its page that he stops to praise. “This is a delicious drink,” he writes, “and should be imbibed through a glass tube or straw.”

Four lines and a compliment

The recipe is short even by Thomas’s standards: a tablespoon of sugar, a wine-glass of brandy, “the juice of quarter of a lemon,” a tumbler of shaved ice, a good shake. Its neighbors on the page are built the same way, one glass at a time. A Sherry Punch follows with orange and lemon slices, and then the Orgeat Punch, which swaps the sugar for almond syrup and takes half as much brandy again. The quarter of a lemon is the smallest squeeze on the spread; the Orgeat, Curaçoa and Roman punches each take half a lemon.

The tube or straw was not a flourish of this one drink. The Sherry, Orgeat, Curaçoa and Roman punches around it all end the same way: “Serve with a straw.”

Making it today

A wine-glass in Thomas’s day held 2 fluid ounces, so the brandy is 2 fl oz. We read his large bar glass as a 12-ounce tumbler, about 1 1/2 cups of shaved ice. With the ice that melts in the shaking, the drink comes to about 18% alcohol by our arithmetic, a little over one US standard drink of spirit. Thomas says only “a few drops” of vanilla extract; three drops of pure extract is our measure, enough to scent the top of the glass. For an alcohol-free glass from the same book, try the Orgeat Lemonade. How Thomas and the bartenders after him came to write their drinks down is told in The Bartenders Who Wrote Down the Classic Cocktails.

Vanilla Punch.
(Use large bar-glass.)
Take 1 table-spoonful of sugar.
1 wine-glass of brandy.
The juice of quarter of a lemon.
Fill the tumbler with shaved ice, shake well, ornament with one or two slices of lemon, and flavor with a few drops of vanilla extract.
This is a delicious drink, and should be imbibed through a glass tube or straw.

Jerry ThomasThe Bar-Tender’s Guide (1887), p. 71

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Ingredients

For 1 drink. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink.

Superfine sugar1 tbsp
Brandy2 fl oz
Fresh lemon juice (1/4 lemon)2 tsp
Shaved or finely crushed ice1 1/2 cups
Thin lemon, to finish2 slices
Pure vanilla extract3 drops

Ingredients as written here

1 tbsp superfine sugar
2 fl oz brandy
2 tsp fresh lemon juice (1/4 lemon)
1 1/2 cups shaved or finely crushed ice
2 thin lemon slices, to finish
3 drops pure vanilla extract

Equipment

Citrus juicer
Cocktail shaker
Large tumbler, about 12 fl oz
Straw

Instructions

Put the superfine sugar, the brandy and the fresh lemon juice in a shaker and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the shaved or finely crushed ice, close the shaker and shake well for about 10 seconds.
Pour everything, ice and all, into a large tumbler.
Lay the thin lemon slices on top, shake the pure vanilla extract over them drop by drop, and serve it with a straw.

Nutrition

190calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink

Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof brandy, granulated sugar and lemon juice, for one drink.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is one drink. Shake no more than two at a time.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

Changes from the source: Thomas gives no size for the large bar glass; we read it as a 12-ounce tumbler. Superfine sugar, which dissolves quickly, stands in for his plain “sugar,” and three drops is our reading of “a few drops” of vanilla. Stirring the sugar into the brandy and lemon before the ice goes in is ours.

A reusable glass or metal straw does the job of his glass tube.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.