How About A Nice Hawaiian Punch?

Did a search here on Tiki Central and really didn't find any dedicated thread on this classic (gulp) non-alcoholic tropical beverage, so here we go... :wink:

A favorite of many a kid at many a neighborhood backyard luau back in the 1950's and 1960's...was that great deep red and mysteriously sweet drink...Hawaiian Punch!!

Way back then they didn't sell Hawaiian Punch ready-to-drink or anything. You could only purchase it in large glass bottles as super-thick gooey concentrate. It was marketed then as stuff you'd measure out in order to make a whole punchbowl full of "Fruit Juicy Hawaiian Punch" by just adding water to the concentrate. Folks also used it as a topping for ice cream and other "exotic" desserts.

What we did as kids to make individual servings was to just pour some out into a glass, and fill it with water and ice. We loved Hawaiian Punch!

Hawaiian Punch in this concentrate form was really cheap...and usually lasted a family a long time because it really was super concentrated and a little went a long way.

Later they started advertising on television and created the famous animated character "Punchy"...who would go around and slug anyone that answered his invitation to a "nice Hawaiian Punch"...with an affirmative. We thought he was a pretty funny guy, that Punchy. :)

Pre-made ready-to-drink large cansof Hawaiian Punch didn't start to appear on store shelves until much later...probably in the 1960's sometime. And individual cans and bottles later still.

Anyway, just today I happened by a convenience store and purchased and tried a small bottle of Hawaiian Punch...and was surprised that even after decades since last having one...how good it tasted and how its "original" flavor (now called "Fruit Juicy Red") tasted the same as all those years ago. It's very sweet, but there's always been something very interesting going on at the back end of that puppy...that I've never been able to put my finger on.

Just thought good 'ol Hawaiian Punch deserved a small tip 'o the straw hat here. And I was also wondering if any of the classic tropical alcoholic cocktails use Hawaiian Punch in their recipes?

Thanks.

[ Edited by: PremEx 2007-01-30 17:41 ]

fun stuff here:
http://www.hawaiian-punch.com/

fact, games and even downloadable FREE tshirt iron ons!

On 2007-01-29 17:42, PremEx wrote:
Just thought good 'ol Hawaiian Punch deserved a small tip 'o the straw hat here. And I was also wondering if any of the classic tropical alcoholic cocktails use Hawaiian Punch in their recipes?

Not so much in the drink form, but the syrup concentrate is often suggested as a substitute for the mysterious and forbidding tiki ingredient "Fassionola". :)

On 2007-01-29 21:26, mbanu wrote:

On 2007-01-29 17:42, PremEx wrote:
Just thought good 'ol Hawaiian Punch deserved a small tip 'o the straw hat here. And I was also wondering if any of the classic tropical alcoholic cocktails use Hawaiian Punch in their recipes?

Not so much in the drink form, but the syrup concentrate is often suggested as a substitute for the mysterious and forbidding tiki ingredient "Fassionola". :)

Yeah maybe... but have you read this?
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5331&forum=10&vpost=274025

Those old Hawaiian Punch animated commercials will be forever burned into my memory.

"Hey, how 'bout a nice Hawaiian Punch?"

"Shuuuore!"

POW!

Those old Hawaiian Punch animated commercials will be forever burned into my memory.

"Hey, how 'bout a nice Hawaiian Punch?"

"Shuuuore!"

POW!

Here's one of Puncy's commercials from back in the 60's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d3Ia06_mkA

And one from 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRdYNvaEkw

:)

[ Edited by: PremEx 2007-01-30 17:44 ]

I remember that concentrate syrup stuff!! It's been such a long time...I used to have a plastic cup they sent you, I think for proofs of purchase or something like that...a premium, as they used to be called. It was frosty white, translucent, and it had a dotted line near the bottom and one near the top. You poured the concentrate in, up to the bottom line, then poured water until it reached the top line. Then you stirred and there you had it! I haven't thought about that plastic cup in ages!

On 2007-01-30 21:09, procinema29 wrote:
I remember that concentrate syrup stuff!! It's been such a long time...I used to have a plastic cup they sent you, I think for proofs of purchase or something like that...a premium, as they used to be called. It was frosty white, translucent, and it had a dotted line near the bottom and one near the top. You poured the concentrate in, up to the bottom line, then poured water until it reached the top line. Then you stirred and there you had it! I haven't thought about that plastic cup in ages!

Oh my, i missed that Hawaiian punch! That really tasted so good! I can still remember the taste of it! I need to have a drink of that again! straw hat

This year, on my travels in California, I discovered Shasta Tiki Punch, and now prefer it over Hawaiian Punch. Firstly, it's carbonated. Secondly, the can is much cooler, featuring a rather nice tiki mug - sorry Punchy! Finally, it's stupidly cheap - one truck stop sold it at 4 cans for a dollar or something.

Anyway, I have kind of 'invented' a tasty tiki cocktail that tastes like a boozy-fruity version of Hawaiian Punch. I use:

2 oz Cherry Sourz (A schnapps I think? Only 15% alcohol so I go big on this!)
0.5 oz Triple Sec
Couple dashes of Creme de Banana
4 oz Tropicana white grape and mandarin juice (white grape should do the trick - OJ just doesn't cut it)

Shake up with some ice and guzzle. Yum.

Here is a cool old Hawaiian Punch recipe booklet I recently picked up.

The back has "adult drink" recipes for the Hula Highball and the Hula Punch.

They don't sound half bad.

The inside has a couple of pages of interesting non-alcoholic treats.

DC

Back in the 1970's, Sea World (San Diego) had a large Pop-Polynesian area and Hawaiian Punch was one of the coorporate sponsors. It might have been THE coorporate sponsor. I remember my parents taking us on a trip there in the summer of 1974, and I remember us getting Hawaiian Punch at a pavillion there served in this mug which we could (and did) take home with us.

http://www.ooga-mooga.com/cgi-bin/all/mug.cgi?mode=view&mug_id=2142

Covered here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=14655&forum=1
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=1801&forum=1&

Kenbo,

The area was called the Hawaiian Punch Village.

They even served rum cocktails for the parents as shown on this menu I have.

You can see more on this thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=1801&forum=1&start=45&hilite=hawaiian punch village

DC

Yes. That Sea World thread is wonderful. I remember we rode on that Hydrofoil boat.

It may well be fond childhood memories, like this one of Sea World, and others, that have made the tiki esthetic so pleasant to me. I can't be alone in that regard. It shows you the power of good marketing.

Anyway, I'm glad that thread is now linked to from this one because any tiki-related discussion of Hawaiian Punch should certainly include mention of that important sponsorship.

But now I'm wondering. My mug had Hawaiian Punch in it. What were my parents drinking in their mugs? :)

1

[ Edited by: MaukaHale 2012-06-29 23:32 ]

The earlier Hawaiian Punch ad campaign was based on the Hawaiian fruit contained within the drink and focused on a more adult crowd before the "Punchy" days.

Here is an ad for Hawaiian Punch hamburgers.

And some other early pre-Punchy ad images.

DC

I wonder what the quality and taste of Hawaiian Punch was like back in the 1950's when it was being made by the brands original owner vs the HFCS laden beverage we Cadbury-Dr. Pepper/Snapple markets today? i saw in the grocery store today that the current HP only contains 5% real juice.

On 2012-07-03 18:45, Dustycajun wrote:
Here is an ad for Hawaiian Punch hamburgers.

Wait! We can't just let this pass without being able to read the recipe. What's in a Hawaiian Punch burger?

On 2012-07-03 21:08, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
I wonder what the quality and taste of Hawaiian Punch was like back in the 1950's when it was being made by the brands original owner vs the HFCS laden beverage we Cadbury-Dr. Pepper/Snapple markets today? i saw in the grocery store today that the current HP only contains 5% real juice.

A Hawaiian Punch ingredients list from 1959, courtesy of Google Books:

K.F.-1605. Hawaiian Punch. Pacific Hawaiian Products Co., Fullerton, Calif. Labelled: "Real Fruit Juice Punch -- Made with delicious tropical fruit juices -- Made with filtered water, sugar, orange juice, pineapple juice, apricot puree, papaya puree, guava puree, passion fruit juice, citric (from fruit), natural fruit flavors and artificial color." Analysis showed: Total solids, 13.37, total sugars, 13.23, ash, 0.056, and total acidity (as citric acid), 0.26, gm./100 cc; K:O, 25 mg./100 cc. Probable juice content only 10 per cent, but passed.

This isn't the original recipe, but the postwar one from the "Pacific Hawaiian Products" era, 1946-1963. Given that there is more water in it than sugar, I think this was probably for the prepared version. Not that much extra fruit juice. :) (I wonder when they started adding apple juice?) No corn syrup, artificial flavors, pectin, acacia gum, ester gum, sucralose, potassium sorbate, or sodium hexametaphosphate, either, though.

[ Edited by: mbanu 2012-08-03 15:46 ]