Batavia Arrack van Oosten

[eas]

In the spirit of open source cocktailing, I'll try to dig up and post recipes that might strongly resemble commercial available Swedish Punschs.

This below (and posted on egullet) pays homage to one of my personal favoritess, Facile Punsch. I'm not sure if it is still in production - Tiare, might you know?

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The commercial variations made in Sweeden all have a Brix ranging from 35 to 42; today's batch clocked out at a Brix of 37. It's flavor profile is in the style of the Facile Punsch. Clock yourself, it should take no more than ten minutes. If you don't have or can't be bothered with the spice, it's still great.

Punsch "Josephine" Liqueur, 375ml @ ~24%

180ml Batavia Arrack
100ml Water
135g Sugar (Bakers)
3/4 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract (Penzey's)
6g Tea Leaves (Assam; equiv to 2 typical teabags)
Lemon peel, fresh ground cardamom

Prepare the cardamom: open the pods and crush the seeds. Either add to loose tea leaves or, if you want minimal sediment, place into a tea bag/sachet.

Prepare the tea with the cardamom and lemon peel - by this amount it should brew to twice normal service strength. After 4 minutes, remove the cardamom, tea leaves/bags and peel and mix together with the sugar, stir until syrup-like, then add the Batavia Arrack and vanilla. Give a quick stir to further dilute then immediately bottle.

[eas]

Originally Posted by Michael

BTW I didn't notice until after ordering that the Dram was listed as "product of Austria". Up to that point I'd had the impression that it was made in Jamaica. It just seemed natural that Pimento Dram made with pot still rum and Jamaican Allspice would originate in Jamaica.

Michael - the St Elizabeth uses a very high grade Jamaican Allspice (only from Jamaica) and an old-fashioned, high ester Jamaican pot-still rum (again, only from Jamaica). To my knowledge, the latter is seldom to ever used in bottled rum anymore, as Mr Wondrich notes in his latest book Imbibe, and instead gets sold principally to food/flavoring/perfume overseas. The cane sugar is European as is the water. Incidentally, there has been a long history of using Allspice in many European cuisines since the Brits started selling hundreds of years ago (for instance, the distillery's partners in South Tirol/Alto Adige make a holiday bread each winter that relies upon allspice for its spice.)

[Edward Hamilton]

There are actually a few rums that still use aged high ester Jamaican rums. The highest ester rums from Jamaica aren't commonly consumed straight, for good reason, but they are blended, carefully, for some heavy type rums.

[Tiare]

Originally Posted by eas

,
This below (and posted on egullet) pays homage to one of my personal favoritess, Facile Punsch. I'm not sure if it is still in production - Tiare, might you know?

Yes Facile is still in production. It won a tasting contest together with Gronstedts bla.

[Michael]

eas,

Thanks for the description of the Allspice Dram; it sounds delightful.

Although my interest in the formulation of Swedish Punsch is recent, it already appears that there are some significant differences both between recipes for the traditional Punsch, made from scratch, and between the traditional Punsch and commercially available recipes.

All of the scratch methods seen so far use a large quantity of sugar, but balance it with a sour element (lemon juice, white wine, vinegar, citric acid, etc.). The commercial recipe you posted adds lemon peel, cardamon and vanilla extract, for a singular taste, but lacks any significant sour part.

Having never tasted Swedish Punsch, the "lemon juice to taste" instruction is a bit troubling. Since, it is my understanding, the Punsch was drunk as concocted, a balanced flavor profile might be more pleasing. The commercial recipe suggests a sweeter flavor might have been intended. The need to balance the full ounce of lime juice in the "Doctor Cocktail" recipe posted would seem to argue for a sweet Punsch as well.

[Tiare]

I have finally found a source for the Batavia arrak so later on i`ll be able to post the results of my coming experimentations..
I want to make small batches of all these recipes here and compare them.
And also compare them with a few of the commercial punsches like the Gronstedts,Facile and Carlshamns.

[Tiare]

Here are 3 other drinks using swedish punsch.

Havana Cocktail

1 dash lemon juice
1/4 Gin
1/4 Swedish Punch
1/4 Apricot Brandy


Diki Diki Cocktail

1/6 Grapefruit Juice
1/6 Swedish Punsch (Carlshams)
2/3 Calvados

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

For a subtle but noticeable difference try pink grapefruit juice.


Karlstrommare

2 cl punsch
4 cl whiskey

[Edward Hamilton]

Swedish punsch and whiskey sounds interesting.

[Michael]

Here's one from Dr. Cocktail's "Forgotten Cocktail" book:

Modernista

2 oz (1/2 gill, 6 cl) Scotch
1/2 oz (1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) dark Jamaican rum
1 tsp pastis (Herbsaint, Pernod, Ricard or absinthe)
1/2 oz (1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) Swedish Punsch
1/2 oz (1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) fresh lemon juice
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Add lemon twist.

We need to get back to our Swedish Punsch experiments.

[Tiare]

I have the Arrak but not the Punsch, I had one bottle left and I sent it to Australia in exchange for a Kimberley Cane Spirit.

Maybe i should make my own Punsch...