THE SWEDISH PUNSCH – Asian distillate becomes a Swedish tradition.

Arrak which originates from east Asia was shipped to Sweden during the 1700 century. One of the large harbour cities where arrak was shipped to was Carlshamn, a name that also today is connected to the punsch. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was the golden era of the punsch and real large amounts was consumed. The punsch was often named after special occasions or known places to sell even better. At most about 5 million litres of punsch was consumed each year.

Arrak came to Sweden for the first time in 1733 aboard the ship Fredrika Rex Suecia from the swedish East India Company, which came from the far east with a cargo of silk, spices and porcelaine to the home harbour city of Gothenburg. During the voyages to and from Kanton the ships stayed in Batavia. The arrak was portioned aboard, from the highest 50 portions for the captain to the lowest, a few dashes. The punsch was poured in a large iron pot and warmed by glowing canon-balls because the punsch was at first always consumed warm.

The punsch is a blend of arrak and other ingredients, aged in oak barrels and many different recipes and blends were used. The king declared that real punsch must be made with Batavia arrak. The word ”punsch” is believed to come from the sanskrit word panca – meaning ”five” as five ingredients were used to make the punsch: arrak, water, sugar, tea, and lemon. There are also variations like: arrak (or rum) a neutral spirit, sugar and water, or mixed with cognac, rum or neutral spirit. Carlshamns flaggpunsch contains both arrak and rum.

From “Nordic Family Book” 1910: The Swedish punsch is usually made with arrak, sugar and water, the water and sugar is made into a syrup and then arrak is added. Then the punsch is stirred during cooling. Sometimes the juice from wild strawberries is added, then you`ll have wild strawberry punsch.

Its said that the punsch today has almost the same taste as it used to in the old days apart from a few sweeter alternatives. The big difference is rather the amount of brands available and the rate of consumption. In the golden days of the punsch there were several brands with rather imaginary names like telephone-punsch, household-punsch, cavallery-punsch, sport-punsch, elevator-punsch, vet – punsch, velociped (bicycle) punsch and car-punsch. Today about 10 brands exist and Carlshamn`s Flaggpunsch has 50% of the market.

In the year 1845 a dramatic change took place. A wine businessman with his company J Cederlund & Sons, had a punsch and wine warehouse in Stockholm. Edward, one of his sons went to the US to study what was new. He later returned with new marketing knowledge and suggested and persuaded his father to start bottling his punsch which was usually sold by weight. He said it would be marketed and sold much easier if it was bottled in glassbottles and he was right, it was genious. Bottled punsch became the latest in fashion and now the restaurants could start selling the punsch more effectively. The punsch bowls were still for the rich in fine saloons but the punsch in glassbottles was something the restaurant owners were able to handle.The punsch market completely exploded.

The blended punsch was poured in giant oak casks to age for 6 months. But even those 1000 litre casks became to small for the great punsch demand. In the year 1889, one of Cederlunds sons attended the great world-exhibition in Paris. He brought home a gigantic 24 000 litres oak cask called ”the gigantic piece” Its still in use at Cederlunds punsch, now situated in the city of Sundsvall where Vin&Sprit produces 4 kinds of punsch to be sold at the govermental spirits shop called ”Systembolaget”.

So in the year 1845 the punsch started to be sold in restaurants and also started to be served chilled. There were two groups who declared total prohibition but one group declared: ”2 shots of spirit in the morning and free drinking of punsch during the rest of the day” At the end of the 18th century there were so much punsch consumed that the state made a special ”punsch-tax” between 19-21 in the evenings. Then Vin & Sprit AB took over and with their monopoly many of the punsch brands unfortunatly disappeared.

Its believed that the reason the punsch became such a swedish tradition despite the fact that it contains such a non-swedish ingrediet as the arrak, is that it threw the total prohibition groups labour on end and thus created a national fellowship among the people. Other strong spirits were restricted but not the punsch because as the national spirit it must be treated respectfully despite whatever alcohol volume.

The punsch during the 20th century

In the 20s the Swedish punsch was exported to Europe, but the golden days of the punsch were over. Today there´s a renaissance of the punsch as a cocktail ingredient and there are many good recipes for making your own punsch on the internet. I also especially like this one, the Underhill punsch.

REVENGE OF HANNAH

* 1 part punsch
* 1 part gin
* 1 part fresh lemon juice
* Fill up with Schweppes Russchian
* Garnish lemon thyme

Pour ingredients in a mxing glass with ice and stir well, strain in chilled cocktail glass. This cocktail is light and fresh like a early summer morning, a bit of sweetness from the punsch, a bit lemony, and the gin, punsch and lemon mixes well with the Russchian.
This one is a nice nightcap in the summer.

I was going to write about one cocktail this time but i have to just add this next one as its a well known punsch drink:

KARLSTROMARE ON THE ROCKS

2 cl punsch och 4 cl whisky

Simple enough, cheers!

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