Regent's Punch (Georgian)

Choice of non-alcoholic or alcoholic

Although Regent’s punch usually contained a sparkling wine, it was also made with lemonade as a refreshing summer drink. Other ingredients include lemon and green tea (an expensive ingredient in Georgian times, hence the lock on the tea caddies).

According to The Cook’s Oracle by Dr William Kitchener (1827):
.........When the proportion of fluids is destroyed by profuse perspiration this may be drunk plentifully. Let a large jug be made early in the day - it will then become warmed by the heat of the air, and may be drunk without danger - which water, cold as it is from the well, cannot in hot weather.........

Ingredients

4 large lemons 16 fluid ounces water
3 tsp loose green tea (three teabags worth) 190g icing sugar

1 bottle chilled champagne or sparkling wine (alcoholic version)
or
½ litre good quality lemonade

Method

  1. Roll the lemons on a table to make them jucier.
  2. Pare the zest (only the yellow part of the rind) of the lemons.
  3. Cut the remaining white rind from the pulp, remove the seeds, then chop the pulp coarsely.
  4. Discard the white rind and the seeds.
  5. In a non-reactive pan (steel, enamelled, or glass), boil the water, pulp, and zest for 10 minutes.
  6. Let the mixture cool for 1 minute, then pour it over the tea leaves in a heat proof bowl or teapot.
  7. Stir, then let steep three minutes.
  8. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
  9. Stir in the sugar and chill.

To serve, pour the chilled mixture into a punch bowl or pitcher and stir in the chilled champagne.

Images

Lemons for Regent's Punch