what are your preferred Planter's Punch recipes?

mixed up my first one today, used the classic formula: 1 oz lemon, 2 oz simple syrup, 3 oz dark rum (used Pusser's), 4 oz ice, stirred well and long to promote plenty of ice-melting.

tasted like burnt molasses. i think pirates woulda drank this!

anyhow, seems like there are a million versions of this drink, usually of a reddish hue, and usually w/maximo juiceos.

how mix ye thine own planter's punches?

Did you try it with 4oz of water instead of ice? That might have been a problem. Following the old rhyme, you can sub just about anything. An acquaintance originally from Trinidad insists on Mount Gay rum and sticks to the 1:2:3:4 recipe. The "weak" is always water and everything is mixed first and than loaded into a mug full of ice. Plenty of nutmeg on top.

I've tried various concoctions: lemon/lime for the sour, grenadine/simple syrup/orgeat for the sweet, dark jamaican/demerara/Barbados rum, water/club soda/fruit juice for the weak. I always go back to plain ol' rum, lime, sugar (demerara simple syrup), water with a splash or two of Angostura bitters. If I make them for someone else, they get loaded with fruit garnish.

I like the "Steve Remsburg" (rum expert)Planter's: 3 oz dark Jamaican, 1oz lime juice, 1oz simple syrup, 3 dashes Angostura bitters and crushed ice. Nice and simple

a comparison of 8 different punches: http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=11358

looks like I have some work to do tonight. :drink:

Did you try it with 4oz of water instead of ice? That might have been a problem.

no, but the burnt molasses suited me just fine.

i think the drink would have been smoother had i used appleton v/x in lieu of the pusser's.

i just found it odd that there seems to be no definitive recipe or history for this drink.

[ Edited by: thePorpoise 2011-05-09 10:52 ]

On 2011-05-09 10:51, thePorpoise wrote:...

i just found it odd that there seems to be no definitive recipe or history for this drink.

...

There is.

According to Jeff Berry the 200 hundred year old recipe has been passed from generation to generation in rhyme: (as mentioned previously) "one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak."

Translating to:
one part lime juice
two parts sugar
three parts Jamaican rum
four parts water

There's a bit of history on it in Remixed.

[ Edited by: Hakalugi 2011-05-09 11:18 ]

here's a link to a google timeline for Planter's Punch (can anybody translate the 1665 entry in russian- looks like they're discussing Jamaica anyhow)

timeline

seems like depending on what recipe one uses, one is making either a dark rum sour, or a dark rum daiquiri, or a modified hurricane, or a cousin to fish-house punch...

[ Edited by: thePorpoise 2011-05-09 11:53 ]

I used this recipe last time I made a PP and thought it came out well:

1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1 oz Sugar Syrup
1 oz Orange Liqueur
1 1/2 oz Coruba Dark Rum
1 oz Cruzan Light Rum
1 oz Club Soda
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Fee Bros. Grapefruit Bitters

Shake with ice and pour into a big mug.

On 2011-05-09 11:51, thePorpoise wrote:
(can anybody translate the 1665 entry in russian- looks like they're discussing Jamaica anyhow)

Direct translation from Babel Fish:

1665 - it is not ingenious, that also the prescription of punch, basis of which is also rum, was brought by Englishmen in 1665 from Jamaica (Antilles Islands). And on this island was precisely devised cocktail “punch of planter” (Planter' s Of punch), which in short time became traditional… From the fifth element

Bear

[ Edited by: Brudda Bear 2011-05-09 15:37 ]

Brudda Bear = Russian Bear.

Spoceba, Bratya, spoceba!

okay, here's what i settled on, an amalgamation of the various recipes out there, and pretty damn tasty i might add:

1/2 oz lime;
1 oz turbinado simple syrup, 1/2 oz grenadine for color;
2 oz Pusser's, 1 oz Gosling Black Seal;
1 oz OJ, 1 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz guava nectar, 1 oz soda water.
and, 1 dash Angostura bitters, 1 dash Peychaud's bitters.

so, sort of a 1/2 sour, 1 and 1/2 sweet, 3 rum, 4 juicy/weak.

this was well balanced between the sour, sweet, smoky dark rum, and juice flavors.

I've seen this drink on menus for years and have never sampled it. Interesting mystery. Was it invented as rumored by a Jamaican planter's wife, or, as also rumored, by Jerry Thomas at the St Louis Planter's House bar??

either way, i'm looking forward, when i have more time, to comparing the 'juices' version of this drink with a well-made hurricane..