You can now take home Punch Room’s favourite recipes
The new menu from the Punch Room at The London Edition hotel is being sold as a recipe book rather than your typical cocktail list.
Since Punch Room opened more than 10 years ago, in 2013, the team have devised and ‘geeked out’ on their fair share of cocktail recipes, enough to make a book, some might say…
Now, it’s also about time guests can try the recipes out for themselves at home, bars manager Anthony Callegari, told The Spirits Business of the concept behind its latest menu.
Titled The Recipe Book, the menu is presented as a little pink (or “bright-coloured fuchsia”, as Callegari says) take-home book, illustrated with 18 of the bar’s recipes – both the greatest hits and the latest creations, including newcomers for The Recipe Book – pinpointing every detail from the ingredients, measurements and method to the appropriate tools required for each serve, such as a blender or a punch bowl itself.
All of this is so guests can make cocktails to Punch Room’s exact fool-proof standards from the comfort of their own homes.
“Think of it as a boozy family recipe book,” Callegari says.
Comparing it to a cookbook, Callegari outlines that he and the team came up with the concept for two reasons.
“One, we are 13-years-old and we have had seven menus prior to this, so we have plenty of recipes that we can pick and choose from to create [a] bestseller list, and second, because the bar industry uses rotovaps, sous vide and other very difficult techniques, but they’re not always willing to share it with the public, and the way that they achieve such flavours – so we thought, why don’t we go in the opposite direction?
“When you come to Punch Room, you try a cocktail and if you really like it, you can take the book and then replicate it at home with your friends.”
As not everyone is blessed with a sous vide machine at home, the bar works with a chef on how to create the same effect in a kitchen-friendly way, such as with a regular oven or just with a frying pan. These are made clear in the book via a step-by-step preparation guide. The cocktails are designed to be easily replicated at home, but also detailed in the sense that you are still having a premium serve.
To aid with at-home bartending, the book notes the exact instructions on how to make each cocktail (including the ice, garnish, glassware and allergen information), while a picture on the left side of the page not only shows the guest how the drink should look once finished, but also how it should look when it arrives at the table when served at Punch Room, whether that be the Milk Punch or the classic Edition Punch.
Of the two cocktails mentioned, even though they were considered menu ‘stars’, they have never formally been on the menu… until now.
Callegari says they have always been available to order and people just ask: “They are the big sellers and this year, we put them on the menu so – if they wanted to – people can actually now make them at home. Even if it takes 12 hours [the amount of time needed for the Milk Punch], that’s up to the customer to decide if they want to invest that amount of time, or simply come to us and taste it.”
The cocktails
All cocktails in the recipe book are made with a different base, moving from rye whiskey and vodka to Tequila and rum. All spirits are covered and Callegari points out that the brands they use are all contract-based.
“They are all very big brands that you can find pretty much anywhere,” he says, highlighting Diageo-owned brands such as Ketel One Vodka, Tanqueray No. Ten and Johnnie Walker Blue Label.
He added: “For another one, we’ll be using Everleaf, which is probably the biggest [independent] non-alcoholic brand – so they are all very popular brands that guests can easily source.”
The cocktails themselves are also not inspired by trends, rather Callegari just asked the team what they liked and to recreate that. For example, A Sweet Treat might remind guests of a matcha cheesecake, a dessert that the Punch Room team apparently enjoys, and the matcha latte, which one of the bartenders drinks on the regular.
Callegari says that making a matcha latte-inspired cocktail itself is “too simple in a way”, so when it came to creating A Sweet Treat the team decided to make it a little more complicated.
“We use yoghurt, matcha, Stauning [the Danish whisky], oloroso, cream cheese, milk, lemon juice, and clarify this until it becomes completely clear,” he explained. “We also garnish it with a mini meringue dusted with raspberry powder, as each cocktail also has an edible component, which again, refers to the book.” You might read the recipe and think it has so much going on, but once you try it, you see it makes sense and have that thought ‘okay, now I see why’.”
A Sweet Treat takes two to three hours to make and is served in a tumbler glassware – things you’ll also find out in the book as everything the team does is laid bare.
Alcohol-free serves
While there are 15 alcoholic drinks, there are also three with no booze. Before Callegari joined the Punch Room, there was no non-alcoholic cocktail on the menu, but he says he had to acknowledge “a trend that is growing” and put a lot of thought into this area.
“You can see it from simply how many new non-alcoholic brands are popping up every day,” he says.
“Last year with our Lights menu, we decided to put a non-alcoholic cocktail at the front of the menu – that really helped boost the sales and awareness of our non-alcoholic drinks offer.
“This year, though, we put them at the end, simply from a design perspective, but there is the same dedication. The way we looked at non-alc cocktails this year is to make them as sustainable as possible, so most of the ingredients which will go into the alcohol-free drinks are from the alcoholic cocktails in the previous pages.”
Punch Room’s Recipe Book costs £30 (US$38) and be purchased directly from the bar.
Located on 10 Berners St, Punch Room in the London Edition hotel is open from 5pm-12.30am from Tuesday to Saturday.
In other London cocktail news: Scarfes in The Rosewood Hotel also debuted a new menu last week.
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