Champagne Party Punch

Offering punch at a party is nice, as you can let your friends serve themselves, explains Eden Passante, a food and lifestyle blogger and creator of the award-winning Sugar and Charm website. A punch also looks fun and festive on the table. Made with fresh raspberries, this recipe from her cookbook, Entertaining with Charm, is perfect for springtime entertaining. The punch is great with either rum or gin, Eden says; give each a try and see what you prefer.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./125 ml) water
  • 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz./105 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 4 to 5 lemons
  • 1 cup (8 fl. oz./250 ml) rum or gin, plus more as needed
  • 1 1/2 cups (6 oz./185 g) raspberries
  • Ice cubes
  • 2 cups (16 fl. oz./500 ml) Champagne, chilled

Directions:

First, make a brown sugar simple syrup: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the water and brown sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until the sugar fully dissolves. This will take 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from 2 lemons and drop the peels into a punch bowl or pitcher. Juice the 2 peeled lemons, then juice the remaining 2 to 3 lemons as needed to yield 1 cup (8 fl. oz./250 ml) juice.

Add the lemon juice, 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./125 ml) of the cooled simple syrup, the rum and raspberries to the punch bowl or pitcher and stir gently to mix. Muddle the raspberries a little to release their flavor. Add ice cubes to the bowl or pitcher, then pour in the Champagne and stir gently. Taste the punch and add more simple syrup or rum if needed. Serve immediately. Serves 6.

Adapted from Entertaining with Charm by Eden Passante (Weldon Owen, 2024)