This Chai-Spiced Apple Cider Holiday Punch – made with apple cider, brandy, vanilla, and chai tea – is sugar, spice, and everything nice! Easy to scale up or down, it's ready for your next holiday party.

Photography Credit: Nancy Mitchell

Nothing says party quite like punch! This holiday version is made with brandy, apple cider, vanilla, and chai (yes, chai!) for a drink that’s sweet, well-balanced, and full of subtle spice flavors.

Punch has a long history of getting people convivially schnockered. As an alcohol delivery mechanism, it predates even the cocktail. (Apparently, on a single evening George Washington and a party of friends drank seven bowls of the stuff, among other things.)

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A BIT ABOUT BRANDY IN PUNCH

Brandy is a hard liquor made from grapes – think of it as wine’s boozier cousin. Although it has faded from the scene a bit, brandy was once a very popular choice for cocktails. It has a nice richness and warmth, along with a bit of spice, which makes it a great choice for a punch.

You don’t need a fancy brandy for this punch; a mid-range (or even slightly cheaper) bottle will do well. I used Korbel. E & J is also nice. (Check the note below about sizes, though – you may need multiple bottles!)

WHAT IS CHAI?

Chai, or masala chai, as it’s known in India, is a mixture of black tea and spices like cardamom, cinnamon, and anise. (Chai is the Indian word for tea, so technically speaking, ‘chai tea’ means ‘tea tea’.)

In India, it’s often brewed with milk (what we know here as chai latte), but this recipe simply calls for chai brewed with water. I give instructions to make the tea double strength to add extra flavor to the mixture.

DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THE RECIPE TO FILL A PUNCH BOWL

This punch can be served in a pitcher, a traditional punch bowl, or a drink dispenser on a stand. It all depends on how much you make!

The recipe below (once you add ice) comes to about 55 ounces. My punch bowl (I like this one) is three gallons, and a single gallon is 128 ounces, so I had to double the recipe to make the punch bowl look even remotely full (and tripling it probably would’ve been better).

Think about how many servings you want to make, multiply the recipe accordingly, and pick a receptacle to fit. Many punch bowls (and dispensers) look kind of silly when insufficiently filled with liquid, but you also don’t want to have the opposite problem and discover that your container is too small as you’re mixing the punch.

A BOOZE-FREE OPTION FOR NON-DRINKERS

You can leave the brandy out of the recipe and instead give your guests the option to spike the punch themselves on the side, if they want. This is a good option for a party with children or for people who like their drinks a little lighter on the alcohol.

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