You know from Eastern India came
The skill of making punch as did the name.
And as the name consists of letters five,
By five ingredients it is kept alive
It is a curious fact, not generally known, that Britain’s favourite alcoholic beverage – Punch, was stirred up in the English factory at Surat. The word itself is derived from the Hindustani word Palepunsche or Panch; meaning ‘five’ which were the number of ingredients that added up to prepare the spirit.
In an account of the English factors at Surat,in his book on ‘Early Records of the British Settlements in India’,J.Talsboy .Wheeler narrates how on Fridays ,after prayers, the President and a few friends met for the purpose of drinking to the health of their wives ,whom they had left in England.” Some made to their advantage of this meeting to get more than they could well carry away, though every man was at liberty to drink what he pleased, and to mix the arrack as he thought fit or to drink Palepuntz which is a drink consisting of aqua vitae,rose-water,juice of citrons, sugar and cinnamon.”
This recipe I give to thee,
Dear brother in the heat.
Take two of sour (lime let it be)
To one and a half of sweet,
Of old arrack pour three strong,
And add four parts of weak.
Then mix and drink. I do no wrong —
I know whereof I speak.
That the Brits found the heat and dust in India unbearable is no state secret. Besides, the locally available arrack was as traveler Bernier put it,” a drink very hot and penetrate, like the brandy made of corn in Poland.” Little wonder then, that diluting the arrack in the punch provided the high without heat to the English.” It (punch) acts as a drug, for, it cleanse the stomach, and dissipates the superfluous humours by a temperate heat particular to it.” wrote the traveler who highly approved of the decoction.
And if I get drunk, well, me money's me own
And them don't like me they can leave me alone
I'll chune me fiddle and I'll rosin me bow
And I'll be welcome wherever I go.
Another factor that made punch extremely popular was that it was affordable. As Philip Anderson states in,’The English in Western India’,”The soul of a feast which is good wine was to be found nowhere but in the Dutch and English factories. Usually imported from Shiraz or the Canaries it was available at six crowns a bottle.” On festive days, two common tables were laid out, one where the Governor and higher servants dined while the other was appointed to the English factors and writers, differing only in this, ’one had a great deal of punch and little wine and the other what wine you please, and a little punch” The finest arrack flowed in from Goa and Bengal and was best savored by diluting its strength in punch. During winter months, local toddy replaced arrack. Often, factors like Fryer carried brandy in a flask and diluted it with sherbets when invited to teetotaler dinners by the Surti moors.
What more diversion can a man desire?
Than to sit him down by an alehouse fire
Upon his knee a pretty wench
And upon the table a jug of punch
Tapi town was once tipple town and its taverns were popularly visited by English sailors. Anderson further writes,” Cases of poisoning were said to be frequent in these taverns. The rude manners of British seamen led them to use a freedom with the dark ladies. A rough kiss or an offensive piece of raillery would often result in the sailor paying penalty by his death. The black wench whose employment was to make that beloved mixture of arrack and punch would contrive in a subtle skillful manner to make the punch bowl fatal for the man who abused her, while his companions drank without the slightest injury to themselves.”
Punch was as popular with the Dutch as it was with the English. At Surat’s Dutch cemetery, there once existed a tomb with a huge punch bowl in stone on top. Made in the memory of a merry maker who wanted his friends to come drink and celebrate each time they visited his grave.
And when I'm dead and in my grave
No costly tombstone will I crave
Just lay me down in my native peat
With a jug of punch at my head and feet.
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