A guide to making your own party punch recipes: Easy, economical and delicious!
Whether you're throwing a kid's party, or having a casual get together of adults, a punch bowl adds a bright, festive touch to the party. It's also an economical way to serve a beverage for a crowd. While there are probably thousands of party punch recipes, it's really an easy matter to make your own, combining your favorite juices with club soda and flavored waters. You can hardly go wrong! Your choices depend mainly on how sweet or tart, heavy or light you want your punch to be.
No matter what your choices for your party punch recipe, the ingredients make punch a healthy alternative to soda for a kid's party. If you want to spike it with a tad of spirits for an adult's party, it's far more economical than several bottles of wine or mixed drinks. You also won't be spending time tending a bar.
One factor that makes it so easy to concoct your own party punch recipe is that, unlike most food dishes, you've got a great deal of latitude in adjusting the taste as you go along. If you find the taste to be too sweet by the time your punch bowl is almost full, a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice is all you need. If it's too tart, add pomegranate juice to the mix, one tablespoon at a time, until it suits your taste.
The majority of the liquid in any punch consists of fruit juice. If you were to make the punch entirely of fruit juices, it would probably be a bit heavy for most people's taste. A good punch should be refreshing and light on the palate, so that it doesn't drown out the taste of your party foods.
Here are the rule of thumb ratios that most people find pleasing. If you're using 100% fruit juices, for every three quarts of juice, balance your party punch recipe off with about two quarts of club soda or flavored water. Herbal teas can also be used to add flavor without sweetness. To avoid an overly sweet punch, balance sweet juices, such as orange, peach and apricot, with a more neutral flavor, such as strawberry-banana. If you like a punch that leans toward tartness, a quart of pineapple combined with two quarts of sweet juice works well.
To add some bright color to your punch bowl, freeze red, orange and yellow juices in ice cube trays. You can also freeze fresh fruits, such as strawberries, chunks of pineapple or diced peaches in a clear flavored water. Snips of mint also add a bright touch to the appearance of your punch bowl. Come party time, add your cubes to the bowl. Four trays of ice cubes are about right for five or six quarts of punch.
Another great thing about making your own party punch recipes is that you can use the same recipe to serve kids and adults. Kids can have it 'plain'. Your adult version can be spiked with a cup or two of liquor.
So now you have the secrets to a delicious party punch recipe! Once you get the hang of balancing the tastes just right, you may want to write down the ingredients for an especially successful combination, to keep on hand for your next party.
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