Punch makes for a festive occasion no matter when you serve it, but September 20 is cause for special celebration: It’s National Punch Day. At Punch Bowl Social—an ever-growing, multi-city franchise of one-stop entertainment shops that boast bars, full-service kitchens, bowling alleys, arcades, karaoke parlors, and much more under one roof—that counts as a national holiday. In fact, it counts as a pre-national holiday, according to beverage director Patrick Williams: “Before America, there was punch. Punch predates refrigeration and ice. It’s one of the oldest forms of cocktail.”
Granted, beyond that, its history is somewhat murky; no less an expert than cocktail historian David Wondrich, who wrote the definitive book on the subject, has expressed doubts about the purported etymology of the word. But whether accurate or not, it’s certainly useful, as Williams explains: “Punch” perhaps derived from the Hindi or Sanskrit term for “five,” in reference to the drink’s key elements—sour, sweet, strong, and weak in a 1:1:3:4 ratio, plus a dash of spice.
