If You're Serving This at Your Holiday Parties, You're Part of the Problem

"'Come in!' exclaimed the Ghost. 'Come in! and know me better, man!' " So goes the legendary invitation of the Ghost of Christmas Present to Ebenezer Scrooge, as the hospitable spirit sits surrounded by heaps of "turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.""

"The Dickensian holiday punch is very much still part of Christmas present. Invariably, it is around the holidays that this one-bowl wonder rears its stodgy head at dinner parties, cocktail gatherings, and even boozy brunches. While it would be Scrooge-like of me to rail against the popularity of "Merry Christmas," surely today's guests deserve more than a monotone, hangover-prone bowl of punch."

"I'll admit, Christmas and punch have a storied history together. In his authoritative book on the drink, Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, cocktail historian David Wondrich traces the concoction's roots from India to the modern cocktail movement. It was somewhere in the British milieu of India that citrus, sugar, spices, water, and arrack (a South Asian spirit made from palm sap) were first combined and called "punch." The earliest reference to the drink dates to a 1638 letter from the"

Punch began in the Anglo-Indian milieu as a mix of citrus, sugar, spices, water, and arrack, with the earliest known reference dating to 1638. The beverage became part of English seasonal customs by the 16th–17th centuries and evolved into a communal, single-bowl offering at holiday gatherings. Holiday punch remains widely served at dinner parties, cocktail events, and boozy brunches, often presented as a default communal option. Despite festive associations and historical prominence, the bowl-style punch frequently delivers monotonous flavor and contributes to hangovers among guests.

Read at Slate Magazine