Merry Christmas to you all, today we are drinking punch. We have a porthole (an infusing container) that we use too seldom and punch for two is an excellent occasion. Punch is a loanword from Sanskrit and means “five”. The drink was originally done with five different ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water and tea or spices. Why or, we do and.

First we peeled one blood orange and one lemon and muddled those together with unrefined cane suger to release the oils from the peels.

At the same time we brewed some tea (organic Ceylon, or whatever you like). After discarding the leafs, pour the tea over the sugar and citrus peel and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Strain it to get rid of the peels.

Juice the citrus and strain to remove the pulp.

To further spice the Christmas punch we took one slice of blood orange, two slices of ginger, a few saffron pistils, two star anises and two cinnamon sticks and decorated the porthole.

Mix the juice with the sugar tea and cognac and dark rum and poor into the porthole.

Let it rest for at least 30 minutes and consume within 4-6 hours (the white on the orange slice can otherwise give a bitter taste).

Recipe

4 oz of tea with sugar and citrus (see below)

4 oz of citrus juice (we used 2 oz lemon and 2 oz blood orange, both organic)

4 oz of cognac

2 oz of dark Jamaican rum

ginger stem

orange slice

2 star anises

2 cinnamon sticks

Tea

2 oz unrefined cane sugar

peel from one blood orange and one lemon

4 oz of Ceylon tea (freshly brewed)

Muddle the sugar with the peel and poor over hot tea. Strain after the sugar has dissolved completely.