Did you know that there are a truly absurd number of recipes for rum punch? Go ahead and do a Google search, I’ll wait.

…

There, see? Crazy. Something needs to be done. We need a definitive guide to rum punch! In the interest of helping humanity, I have decided to apply myself to the problem. Step 1: collect a bunch of rum punch recipes. Step 2: Prepare them, taste them, and review them. Step 3: Who needs a step 3 when step 2 is so much fun?

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself a little. For now, I’m going to post some promising rum punch recipes, one a week for the next several weeks.

Incidentally, the Wikipedia entry on punch is surprisingly lovely. I feel the need to make a 17th century punch with tea, and I have a feeling a bourbon punch will appear in my home on the first Saturday in May.

The basic Caribbean rum punch follows the rhyming recipe “One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak,” i.e. one part lime juice, two parts simple syrup, three parts rum, and four parts water. (This is sometimes called “grog.”) To this bitters or grated nutmeg are sometimes added. But, like I said, there are lots of variants on this theme, many that replace all or part of the water with fruit juice.

So for this week, here’s a recipe from Bobby Flay, which is quite straight-forward:

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 cups grenadine syrup
• 2 cups Jamaican white rum
• 1 cup light rum
• 2 cups fresh pineapple juice
• 2 cups fresh orange juice
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg, optional
• Orange slices, for garnish
• Pineapple slices, for garnish

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a pitcher or punch bowl. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with orange or pineapple slices.