Punsch - online puzzles

Online puzzle Punsch

Punsch (also known as Swedish Punsch, Arrack Pun(s)ch, or Caloric Pun(s)ch, and not to be confused with "punch" as used generically) is a specific alcoholic beverage popular in Sweden and Finland (known as punssi in Finnish). It is produced from spirits (arrack, brandy or rum), mixed with arrak tea, sugar and water, and first imported to Sweden from Java in 1733. The spirit arrack is the base ingredient in most punsches, also brought into Europe by the Dutch from their colony in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Punsch usually has 25% alcohol by volume (ABV) and 30% sugar. While still frequently made by the mixing of ingredients, it is often now purchased prepackaged in bottles under various brands.

History of punsch

The Swedish East India Company started to import arrack with the arrival of their ship Fredricus Rex Sueciae to Gothenburg in 1733. It quickly became popular, especially among the wealthy, who could afford the price of imported goods. Later it spread through all levels of society.An early recipe for punsch was written by Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén, and Carl Gustaf Ekeberg in their 1771 book, A Voyage to China and the East Indies:

It is known to almost every one how punch is made; but, that it may be observed for the future where it is made to its greatest perfection, I will mention the true proportion of its constituent parts. To a quart of boiling water, half a pint of arrack is taken, to which one pound of sugar, and five or six lemons, or instead of them as many tamarinds as are necessary to give it the true acidity, are added: a nutmeg is likewise grated into it. The punch, which is made for the men in our ship was heated with red hot iron balls which were thrown into it.