“One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak,” goes the handy Bajan rhyme for making a balanced rum punch. Today, the cocktail is synonymous with the Caribbean, but this legendary serve originated over 300 years ago, and travelled across the world with British sailors.
The first mention of punch or “pancha” in the West came out of the British East India Company in the 1600s. Some believe the name came from the Hindi word “pāñch,” for five — the number of ingredients in the drink when including water or spices. Others attribute the name to the puncheon barrel it was made in.
British sailors brought the drink over to the Caribbean, where it flourished alongside the cultivation of sugarcane and the production of rum. Naturally, as the art of rum-making evolved, so did the proliferation of rum punch, with imports swapped for local Caribbean ingredients. Today, it’s a staple of the West Indies, made with citrus juice, sugar or simple syrup, light and dark rum and tropical juices — just follow the rhyme to whip up your own batch.
