06 September 2021

Planter’s Punch has been with us ever since we first started getting into cocktails. Even during our early training years, it was on bar menus — and it’s in Schumann’s bar book as well. Over the years, we’ve mixed it for our guests countless times. In the Schumann-style version we prefer (meaning “only” with orange juice), it’s a tart, fruity drink that can even keep dedicated cocktail skeptics (Gin & Tonic or beer drinkers) reasonably happy.

Depending on the rum you use, its character comes through more or less strongly — and with grenadine and lemon you can easily tune the drink to your guest’s taste. Over time we’ve of course noticed that there are many variations, and while studying old bar books we couldn’t help but see that historic punch recipes, at first glance, have very little to do with the Planter’s Punch we know today. Reason enough to take a closer look — and to clarify as many questions as possible.

What defines a punch

One thing we already know: Planter’s Punch is not actually a cocktail. As the name suggests, it belongs to the drink family of punches. In Jerry Thomas’ Bartender’s Guide from 1862,¹ this category appears right at the beginning and makes up more than a third of the recipes he describes. Punch was by far the most popular drink family at that time. Depending on the climate it could be served hot or cold, and originally it was prepared in a punch bowl for several people. The German word “Punsch” is essentially a phonetic borrowing from the English “punch.”

Early sources and possible name origins

But what defines a punch — and where did it originate? The earliest written mention of the word “punch” appears in 1632 in correspondence of the East India Company, which had held the monopoly on trade with India since the early 17th century. A description of what a punch consists of can be found in the travel report of the German nobleman Johann Albrecht von Mandelsloh, written in 1638, on page 28.² He describes a drink of English sailors, made from strong spirits, lemon juice, sugar and rose water.

One story claims the name “punch” derives from the Indian word “panch” (five), pointing to an original set of five ingredients — with spices considered the fifth. Since spices appear much later and there is no solid historical evidence for an Indian origin of the drink, this theory is disputed. Another explanation links “punch” to “puncheon,” a large cask used to transport spirits or rum on ships. But this, too, is debated: a puncheon³ holds more than 300 liters, and inventory lists of the East India Company suggest that the quantities carried were significantly smaller. For spirits, barrels⁴ or rundlets⁵ (smaller-volume containers) were used.

Seafaring and the spread of punch

What is certain is that the rise of punch is closely tied to the history of seafaring. Preserving food and ensuring a reliable supply of drinkable liquids were major problems for sailors — even more so on voyages into tropical regions. This applied to beer and wine as well, which originally served as durable substitutes for drinking water on board. When the British East India Company sent out its first ships in 1601, spirits were already carried and served when wine and beer ran out or spoiled.

The lemon juice in punch is also best explained by a health-related reason. Scurvy⁶ was a serious problem in seafaring at the time and one of the main causes of death among sailors. On long voyages, malnutrition often meant that more than half of a crew could die from the disease. It took until the modern era to prove vitamin C deficiency as the cause of scurvy — but from the 17th century onwards there were repeatedly advocates of giving lemon juice to combat it.

Since, apart from water, all other ingredients were either unavailable in Europe at the time or far too expensive, punch likely spread first among sailors and travelers before it could become popular on land. This is especially true of the mysterious fifth ingredient: spices were one of the main reasons to endure long voyages and the hardships that came with them. They were as valuable as gold and a cause of trade wars.

In 1735, Johann Heinrich Zedler described “Puntsch” in his Großes vollständiges Universal-Lexicon Aller Wissenschaften und Künste⁷ as a “strong drink among sailors, used mostly by the English, prepared from spirits, water, sugar, bitter orange juice, and nutmeg.” Friedrich Schiller wrote a song about punch in 1803 and named lemons, sugar, water and “spirit” as ingredients. In the punch recipes Jerry Thomas describes, nutmeg appears more frequently.

From rum punch to Planter’s Punch

But all of this still has very little to do with what we understand today as a Planter’s Punch. One early source appears in London’s Fun Magazine in 1878.⁸ There, Planter’s Punch is described as a drink from Jamaica made with rum, lemon juice, sugar and water. The following year, Meyers’s rum—first produced in Jamaica—promoted itself as “Planter’s Punch Brand,” which may have helped spread the recipe. Yet this is still the original formula of a classic rum punch, following the old rule: “one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak” (lime, sugar, rum, water/ice).

Tiki influence and modern variants

The popular modern recipes with fruit juice and grenadine likely owe much to the Tiki bar movement. In the post-Prohibition era in the late 1930s, the first Tiki bars opened and captivated audiences with exotic décor and strong, rum-based drinks. Trader Vic⁹ and Donn Beach¹⁰ created several cocktails that are now famous worldwide, such as the Mai Tai and the Zombie. By the mid-20th century, a version similar to today’s Planter’s Punch recipe also appears in Germany: in 1949, Wilhelm Stürmer lists it in his book Cocktails by William¹¹ under “Cocktails.”

The growing availability of exotic fruits and juices likely helped push water out of the recipe and establish a formula that fits into a broader family of Caribbean drinks — fruity, aromatic, and far closer to today’s taste than the rough, simple form of the original punch.

Our Planter’s Punch recipe

Golden and/or dark rum: 4–5 cl
Lemon juice: 1–2 cl
Grenadine: 1 cl
Orange juice: 12 cl

Shake vigorously with ice cubes and strain into a large tumbler filled with ice. Garnish with orange and mint if desired. For a highlight, grate a little nutmeg over the drink.

Cheers, your moving bars team

PLANTER’S PUNCH – A (VERY) LONG HISTORY