Arrack Punch

Batavia arrack, citrus, and sugar — the Javanese spirit Dutch East India ships carried to American colonies, Benjamin Franklin including it in his punch recipes.

Arrack Punch preserves a preparation tradition built around one of history's most globally traded spirits — arrack, the category of distilled spirits produced from fermented sugarcane juice, coconut palm sap, or rice across South and Southeast Asia. Batavia arrack, produced on Java in what is now Indonesia, was the most commercially significant arrack variety in the European and American colonial trade from the 17th through the 19th centuries: Dutch East India Company (VOC) shipping carried it to European ports and onward to the American colonies, where it was a more widely available and less expensive spirit than French cognac or Caribbean rum for much of the 18th century. Colonial American punch culture built significant portions of its practice around arrack: Benjamin Franklin's documented punch recipes included arrack, and Fish House Punch, first made by the State in Schuylkill fishing club in Philadelphia in 1732, originally used arrack as part of its spirit base. The transition from arrack to rum and then to brandy and whiskey as the dominant American punch spirits occurred through the late 18th and early 19th centuries as Caribbean rum production increased and supply lines consolidated. Batavia arrack is produced from a combination of molasses and small cakes of fermented red rice that provide distinctive fermentation characters, producing a spirit of unusual complexity with funky, fruity, and earthy notes. The spirit's revival in the early 21st century craft spirits market restored arrack punch to modern bar menus.