Planter's Punch

Consider using a blend of your favorite Jamaican rums as the base for this cocktail.

You can add freshly grated nutmeg as part of the garnish to punch up the spice notes.

This proto-recipe could be categorized as a sour, but we’ve placed it in the Tropical & Tiki category because its history is intrinsically tied to the culture that developed after it. Check the Related Cocktails for some of the evolutions of this cocktail.

Notice that this is very similar to a daiquiri: rum, lime, sugar and ice. However, the choice of rum and the process to combine the ingredients result in two very different cocktails. Keep this in mind as you develop your own recipes: If you have a winning combination of flavors, perhaps changing the process will yield an even better result.

The original form of this recipe goes all the way back to the colonial era in Jamaica. The European invasion of the Americas brought, among other things, different traditions of distillation to the New World. While Spanish colonies used techniques related to the production of brandy, English colonies usually followed pot distillations as used with scotch whisky.

As it did in Cuba (Daiquiri), Brazil (Caipirinha), and other parts of America, Jamaica also found the combination of rum, lime and sugar to be incredibly tasty and the cocktail’s popularity rose.

The September 1878 issue of the English magazine Fun is one of the oldest accounts of this recipe. In it, we find the connection of this drink to Jamaica and an instance of the traditional rhyming formula of One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak (limes, sugar, spirit and water, respectively).