Merry Christmas!
When Ebeneezer Scrooge ladles out punch for all assembled at the end of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the bowl is filled with hot Bishop. Bishop was the mulled wine of choice in 19th century England, especially in December. The obvious way to Americanize the drink was to pour it over ice. I got my Bishop's Cooler recipe from Eric Felten's How's Your Drink? Felten got it from a 1947 bar book by "Trader Vic" Bergeron.
A Bishop's Cooler combines fresh lemon and orange juices with Burgundy wine, Jamaican rum and a little sugar. Not wishing to waste a nice Burgundy, I went with a cheap California Pinot Noir instead. The ingredients are mixed directly in the serving glass which is handy. My wife thought it tasted like Sangria. Not surprising. Sangria is, after all, a punch with wine and citrus, too.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas !
ReplyDeletecheers, gayle and all the square ones
Merry Christmas to you, too!
DeleteI hope you had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed a glass or two of the Bishop’s punch. Here, the big drink is the Chatham Artillery Punch, which seems to be to dump whatever liquor you have into a bowl. Btw, Savannah is in Chatham Country.
ReplyDeleteSounds brutal! Punch is a whole lifestyle, really. We would need to reinvent our social life to make it worthwhile.
DeleteI'm not overly fond of sangria, but I might give this a try at some point. We almost always have pinot around.
ReplyDeleteYes, I got sweet vermouth. I knew enough to do that. It's Gallo sweet vermouth and was very on the cheap side. Not that I knew that when I bought it; it was just all they had. At Safeway.
But I'll look for what you suggested at some other places.
I look forward to your continuing vermouth adventures.
Delete