Big-Batch Bourbon Apple Cider Punch

This is the drink to make when twelve people are arriving and you would rather talk to them than stand behind a shaker. Everything goes into the bowl in advance except the ginger beer, which is added at the last minute so the punch arrives at the table still fizzing.

The ice ring is the part worth the extra day. A punch bowl full of cubes waters the whole thing down within an hour. A single large ring made from apple cider melts slowly and, when it does melt, adds more cider instead of water. Freeze it in a bundt pan or a loaf pan the night before with a few apple slices and cranberries suspended in it, and the bowl looks like something even though you did nothing.

Lemon juice is what keeps this from tasting like spiked dessert. Cider is already sweet and bourbon brings its own vanilla-and-caramel sweetness with it, so without real acid the punch goes flabby by the second cup. Use fresh juice. Bottled has a dull, slightly cooked flavor that stands out in a cold drink where there is nowhere to hide.

Big-Batch Bourbon Apple Cider Punch

A gallon-sized punch bowl of cider, bourbon, lemon, and ginger beer, chilled with a cider ice ring that dilutes nothing — twelve servings, five minutes of work.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 0 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Servings 12 drinks

Ingredients

  

• 4 cups apple cider for the ice ring
• 1 apple thinly sliced, for the ice ring
• 1/2 cup fresh cranberries for the ice ring
• 8 cups apple cider chilled
• 2 cups bourbon
• 3/4 cup lemon juice fresh
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or 3 cinnamon sticks
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters optional
• 3 cups ginger beer chilled
• 2 apples thinly sliced, for serving
• 12 cinnamon sticks for stirring

Instructions

 

• The day before, pour the 4 cups of cider into a bundt pan or loaf pan. Scatter in the apple slices and cranberries and freeze overnight.
• On the day, combine the chilled cider, bourbon, lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon, and bitters if using in a large punch bowl or drink dispenser.
• Stir well and taste. Cider sweetness swings widely by brand, so adjust with maple syrup a tablespoon at a time, or with more lemon juice if it has gone sweet.
• Refrigerate the base for at least 1 hour. Adding the sparkling element to a warm base is what makes punch go flat in ten minutes.
• Dip the bottom of the ice ring pan in warm water for a few seconds, then turn the ring out into the bowl.
• Pour the ginger beer down the inside edge of the bowl right before guests arrive. Pouring down the side rather than into the middle preserves the carbonation.
• Stir once, gently, and float the apple slices on top.
• Ladle into cups over a single large cube if you have one, and add a cinnamon stick to each.

Notes

A mid-shelf bourbon is exactly right. In a punch cut with cider and citrus, a bottle at twenty-two dollars and one at sixty taste the same; put the difference into better cider.

Buy cider by the gallon from a farm stand or the produce section in the fall. It is usually cheaper per ounce than the half gallons in the refrigerated case and it tastes considerably better.

Ginger beer is not ginger ale. Ginger beer brings heat and body; ginger ale is sugar water and will leave the punch tasting thin. Store-brand ginger beer is fine.

No bundt pan? Freeze cider in a large yogurt tub or a small mixing bowl lined with plastic wrap. Any single large mass beats cubes.

Scale it in your head with one ratio: 4 parts cider, 1 part bourbon, and a generous squeeze of lemon. That holds at any size.

Make it alcohol-free: leave the bourbon out of the bowl entirely and set the bottle beside it with a jigger, so the base doubles as a cider punch anyone can drink. If you would rather the alcohol-free version taste less plain, add 1 cup of strong brewed black tea and an extra 2 tablespoons of lemon juice — the tannin stands in for the bourbon’s grip.

Serving note: 2 cups of bourbon across 12 servings is about 1 1/3 ounces each, just under a standard drink.

Keyword apple cider cocktail, Autumn, big-batch cocktail, bourbon punch