Every week , we tackle the weirdest recipe we can bump in Jerry Thomas ’s Bartenders Guide . Turns out they did things otherwise back then .
We were drawn to this week ’s subject , the Non - Such Punch , by its strange month - long aging metre . We could n’t fathom what a month in glass would do to this Sangria variant , but we were ready to learn . In typical nineteenth C usage , “ non - such ” refers to something unique or one - of - a - kind . “ One - of - a - kind , ” of course of action , is not synonymous with “ serious . ”
The recipe for Non - Such Punch is similar to Claret Cup Punch , an antiquated English Sangria variant that adds sherry and has its fruit strained out before serve .
While Brother Thomas often provides ruddy verbal description of cookery styles and serving suggestions , his instructions for Non - Such puncher are strikingly minimalist . Most of it , in fact , is sum up up in a single word , “ take , ” along with the element list . As in …
We took “ take ” in this instance to imply “ mix together in a large receptacle . The rest period of the recipe is little and mellifluous …
Simple enough . Claret is a general term for Bordeaux wine . Soda water is readily procurable . For brandy we used Pierre Ferrand Grand Cru Cognac . We went with Lustau Amontillado “ Los Arcos ’ Extra Dry Reserve for our sherry , hop its bright , honey acidic note would cut what we approximate would be a very sweet clout .
30 days later…
Then we added a pint of Genmaicha ( a Nipponese green tea which contains toast Timothy Miles Bindon Rice to kick in it a malty cultivation ) , along with three lemon and half a geld - up pineapple .
We were the lofty possessor of a jumbo purple bathtub of punch with a vividly sugared , violet - tinged aroma .
We acknowledge it was supposed to ride and age , but we could n’t resist a taste . After waking from our diabetic comas , we resolved that this lick ask no extra sugar . Instead , we put our faith in JT that time in the bottle would as if by magic transform this weak sweet-scented - Charles Edward Berry - wine-colored into something mistily toothsome .
After strain our syrupy intermixture and decanting it into swinging - top , sealable methamphetamine bottles , we hid them under a desk . We worry jolly that the punch might go through a secondary fermentation and detonate from the pressure , send glass shrapnel into our unsuspicious shin bone . This is simply the kind of anxiety one must learn to endure if one wish to participate in the Jerry Thomas Experiment .
30 days later on , a calendar admonisher shake up us from our reverie . It was meter to plumb the mysteries of Non - Such Punch . We donned base hit glass in case the pressure inside proved overwhelming , wedge a thumb under the wire of one of the jive - tops and pushed , wincing in reverence of our impendent end of the world .
Ka - tk .
30 days later…
It might have been the most underwhelming moment of the Jerry Thomas Experiment thus far . Our initial sighs of backup man quickly decayed into disappointment . No one prays for a disaster , but they sure do make good stories .
After the non - eventful chess opening , we stream out some liquid . No signs of mold or contamination — so far so good . Time to take a sip .
It was still liquid confect . The only difference from when we bottled the stuff was that it had lost its fizz . The lack of variety makes sense , as we did n’t add any yeast to cause fermenting , and glass is inert and does not impart any additional flavors to whatever is put in it ( just the grounds it is used for storing finished booze ) .
But there is a spot for everything in this big beautiful cocktail world of ours ( well , almost everything ) . Though some might consider it blasphemy , we decided that Jerry Thomas must have made a typo . We ’re convinced he did n’t really mean to name this material Non - Such Punch . He meant to call it Non - Such Syrup . After all , it is unlike any syrup we have ever had .
While we construct several cocktails with it , our favorite was the Some - Such Cooler , which features Non - Such Syrup , lemon succus , fresh slicing of addled cuke , Amontillado sherry , a few goodly flair of bitterness , topped with bone - dry sparkling wine-colored . Poured over a elephantine trash block , it ’s an absolutely delightful , entirely sui generis quaff .