Punch: Not your average party beverage

I take whole-hearted interest in foods and beverages I've never seen before. When I first heard the word Punch in Italy, I had this image that thrust me back to a small U.S. town mostly known because it has a popular university, circa ~ late 1960s, and there I am watching Bluto, Pinto and Flounder wearing togas and drinking "trash can" punch during their fraternity toga party.

Curious as to what it might be, and of course never one to pass on something new, I was surprised to find this as what was meant by Punch:

It looked so pretty.  The orange piece sitting in there, floating so comfortably.  It was a hot drink, thus the mug.  And the color?  Was I about to drink hot orange gelatin??

It smelled of strong orange.  I had a feeling it would be supremely delicious.  You could smell the alcohol, but just barely.  So I asked what was in it.

Someone said, "Well, there's alcohol in it."

Ok, that much I knew.  What kind though?

"Grappa.""

Ahh yes!  The fine folks from the northern Italian city we all know as Bassano del Grappa made what goes into today's libation.  It reminds me of my trip to that city many a year ago.  Want proof?  Here's where I got off the train.

It really is a beautiful city.

And in older times, it was seen distilled in this crazy bird-like device... among other interesting designs to purify the grape liquor.   

Some can be very sweet.  Some can be very dry.  They are all different based on the flavors you add.  For example, I've had such flavors as lemon grappa, plum grappa, and blueberry grappa before.  Going to the city where it originated allowed me to try many varieties.

Curious as to more details about this so called Punch and the use of grappa in it, I went to a local who was born and raised here in Rome and asked her what's the story with this?  She was very kind in giving me the details which I would rather copy and paste here than try to summarize for fear of missing out on details.

Hi, VASGO!

- two links (in italian) about the origins and the recipe of punch
First link 
and one about the Livorno's Ponce (a drink from the tuscan city of Livorno, whose recipe comes from the punch one)
Second link

- In case you needed help with the language, here is a short explanation in english:

In the XVII century dutch and englishmen bring back home from the colonies in India a special warm drink called punch (from the sanscrit word puntsche=five, because it was made of five ingredients). The recipe consisted of lemon, tea, sugar, nutmeg or cinnamon and liquor (originally arrak).

In the italian city of Livorno a new recipe, based on the original one brought by english sailors to the livornese harbour, became popular. 
As you know we are coffee experts in Italy (as opposed to tea experts in England), so...the italian sailors put coffee boiling with all the other ingredients instead of tea! They also changed the kind of liquor used in order to achieve a nice flavour with the strong coffee.

Nowadays the recipe is still the same, but it is also popular with orange flavour (you just boil orange zest with the rest, instead of lemon). 

In the German speaking countries punch is often drunk during Christmas weeks (including advent), because it's warm, of course.

Hope this is helpful.


It IS helpful.  And thank you for educating us on all of this!  By the way, your English is OUTSTANDING!

Just beware!  This message is for some of you: Even though it is warm, orangey (in this case) and quite delicious, it can still do a number on you.

After one sip, she fell asleep.

Arrivederci my friends!  Have a great weekend!