Now that packs a punch

Today's punch might be an insipid fruit cocktail best left to students, but Charles Dickens and George IV knew how to conjure heady pleasures from their five key ingredients, says Lucien de Guise

- Lucien de Guise

IN the annals of the East India Company, one innovation has surely been as important as the bungalow or pyjamas. Punch the drink—as opposed to the magazine, which is not nearly as old—was brought over from India almost 400 years ago. There is, however, a connection between the drink and the journal. When it was established in 1841, a punning reference was made to the first editor, Mark Lemon: ‘Punch is nothing without the lemon.’

Lemons are, indeed, essential to punch in most of its forms. The name is taken from the Hindi panj, which means five—as in Punjab (Five Rivers)—and there are supposed to be five key ingredients. Charles Dickens, who took the beverage very seriously, kept it classic with his: lemons, demerara sugar, rum, cognac and boiling water. He was also partial to a sprinkling of spices, in particular nutmeg, which he carried with him in a silver box.

Today, punch can be a somewhat insipid, glorified fruit juice—or it can be the ice breaker at university freshers’ events. The quantities on offer may be reminiscent of the 18th century, but, at that time, it was the domain of men only. Ladies, being more refined, drank tea. The two worlds rarely came together, except in the ceramic oddity called a punch pot—an oversized teapot designed for alcohol. Meanwhile, punch bowls sometimes bore inscriptions such as ‘Drink fair, don’t swear’ and ‘Fill up the Bowl/ Let not our Wife us Control.’