Earth, lime, citrus
This needs a humid afternoon or evening, and little else. It’s one of the best easy-to-fix drinks in this book.
In Martinique, ’Ti Punch—short for “petit punch” and pronounced tee pauncchhh—is the ultimate kickback drink, a little glass of punch served in a juice glass. Locals enjoy this as an aperitif, using their local white rhum (blanc). Preparing the drink is ritualistic, much like offering a guest a cup of tea, except that it’s made fresh for each person and always built in the glass. Using real cane syrup (“sirop de canne”) is considered essential, but if you can’t find it, you can improvise with a drop of honey added to simple syrup.
Note: In Martinique, bartenders pare off a disk of rind (about the size of a quarter) from one side of the fruit, working from top to bottom. It looks like a hefty hank of peel.
2 ounces (60 ml) rhum agricole (Niesson Blanc or Plantation)
¼ ounce (7 ml) cane syrup (see headnote)
2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of lime peel, thickly cut to include pith and fruit (see headnote)
In a small juice glass, pour the rhum agricole and the cane syrup. Stir. Squeeze the lime so that you get the essential oils from the peel, along with some of the juice, then drop it into the glass. Add one or two ice cubes, no more.
WHAT’S A SWIZZLE?
The original swizzle stick was a multi-prong branch cut from an allspice bush. It was first used in Bermuda, and the idea was to whisk a drink into a froth—long before the hand-held blender. Watching someone swizzle a drink in the islands was an experience. The drink inspired a popular phrase, “Swizzle in, swagger out!” To swizzle a drink, simply hold a bar spoon or swizzle stick between your palms and roll it back and forth until the glass fogs and your drink froths. At Cane & Table in New Orleans, bartenders swizzle drinks with a power drill—because why not?
