Fish House Punch is boubon, whiskey, rum, and … tea. Yeah, tea. It’s like an alcoholic sweet tea. And it has a long and interesting history.

​The scent is unmistakably bourbon, but the flavor is clearly tea. It has the honey, vanilla, and wood notes of rooibos. The lemon is in the background. It’s sweet, like sweet tea. The flavor of the various alcohols fold into the flavor profile, which seems rather complex. But don’t let that lead you to think it’s an adult Arnold Palmer. It may be in that family tree, but it’s not a close relative.

Social Learning

This is a notoriously strong, Colonial-era punch. If you have plans to watch the Ken Burns Revolutionary War documentary, you might want to have a pitcher full of Fish House Punch on-hand. 

When I ask for a very strong, very tart lemonade, I’m referring to something you’re probably not going to be able to buy, unless you maybe buy a frozen lemonade concentrate, and reconstitute it with just enough water to get it to a consitency somewhere in between a syrup and a lemonade. I usually make my own, starting with straight, fresh lemon juice, then adding just enough sugar so it’s palatable if still quite intense, and then thinning it out with water until it’s, as I said, somewhere in between a syrup and a lemonade. I use this concoction as you would use a lemon simple syrup. But I also mix it with sparkling water to make something like a lemon Pellagrino. I do this frequently – whenever I have leftover lemon juice. 

The Liquor:

I used Iron Fish “Four Cask” bourbon, Dalmore, Traverse City Whisky “Lakeside Peach,” and Northern Latitude “Whaleback” spiced rum. Three of those are from local distilleries. The fourth … I wish were local!

Dalmore is a prestigious Scottish distillery located in Alness, north of Inverness. It is best known for producing high-end, luxury Single Malt Highland Scotch Whisky. (In Scotland, “whisky” is spelled without an E.) Dalmore is famous for being rich, heavy, and having what is sometimes described as a “Christmas cake” flavor profile. A friend gifted me a 12-year-old bottle, and believe me, it one of the pride and joys of my liquor cabinet. 

Serving Notes:

I like to make this in a pitcher, but if I were serving it on a buffet table, I’d make it in a punch bowl. 

The version I’m presenting to you isn’t traditional. I’ve done a bit of twisting and conniving to get this to turn out to be something that works for me. 

This punch has a fascinating history.

There is a social club in Philly that goes by the name of the Schuylkill Fishing Company. It was founded in 1732. Its name has rifled through several variations between then and now. At one time, the club maintained an ambiguous claim to state sovereignty, and had its own governor and other officials. George Washington was an honorary member, and legend has it that during a visit to the club, he drank some – maybe a bit too much – of this, their signature punch, and couldn’t bring himself to write in his diary for three days afterward. The club is actually still around today, making it one of the oldest continuous social clubs in the English-speaking world.

The Schuylkill Fishing Company – also called the Fish House -apparently liked to serve this punch in a baptismal font. 

Fish House Punch

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. Thank you, ⌘+C. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #5 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. 

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