Washington Winter Show 2019

54 The Social Bowl Punch and Punch Bowls in Early America T his 18th-century song celebrates the convivial effects of punch. Today, the common view of the punch bowl is the cut-glass centerpiece of staid, DAR-type events, filled with an innocuous mixture of ginger ale and rainbow sherbet. Originally though, punch and the attendant bowls were more interesting: vessels of hard partying and debauchery, necessary adjuncts of political life, taste ambassadors from the exotic East, and opportunities for highly conspicuous consumption. As a carefully mixed combination of various alcohols, flavorings, citrus, and ice or water, punch was the ur-cocktail, marking the transition of hard drinking into polite society and paving the way for modern imbibing. Origins Most sources agree that the word punch is an Anglo-Indian derivation from the Hindu pànch , meaning “five,” and representing the five ingredients: citrus, sugar, spirits, water, and spices. Perhaps the earliest reference to punch occurs in a letter of 1632 between two employees of the East India Company on the Coromandel Coast, around Madras. German and French visitors to the company’s outpost in Surat, on the northwestern coast of India, reported bowls of punch in 1638 and 1649 respectively — the latter the year of Charles I’s execution. The word was used in Barbados about 1650, though the drink itself sounds different. However, another Barbados reference of 1668 seems to be punch as generally understood and shows how quickly it arrived in the New World. 2 It may have gotten to London first, as John Evelyn tasted it on an East India ship in the Thames in January, 1662. He was not particularly impressed, and the lack of punch by John D. Ward You may talk of brisk Claret, sing Praises of Sherry Speak well of old Hock, Mum, Cider and Perry: But you must drink Punch if you mean to be Merry. 1 references in the diaries of Samuel Pepys for the 1660s — where he notes the novelty of tea and coffee — suggests that it was still mostly unknown in England. Punch was probably more common in America at this date, at least around seaports; John Parker’s 1670–71 bill at a local establishment in Talbot County (Maryland’s eastern shore) included “13½ Bowles of Punch.” 3 They varied in price between 60 and 80 pounds of tobacco each, depending on the ingredients, suggesting that Parker varied his mixture to suit his mood, like ordering different cocktails at a local bar. Punch was riding the wave of a change in drinking habits. Before the mid 17th century, the English and English colonials rarely drank distilled spirits for social stimulation. While the Scots and Irish had their usquebaugh , or whiskey, the English were primarily drinkers of ale, beer, and wine, with aqua vitae and distilled spirits more the province of the The effects of punch — particularly in all-male company — are depicted here by Hogarth with his usual acidity. Note the huge punch bowl and small ladle, and the piles of empty bottles and citrus rinds around the room. William Hogarth, “A Midnight Modern Conversation”, 1732. Sotheby’s image.