When one pictures punch, they probably think of a big bowl of fruity drink languishing at a party. Maybe even cocktails like the Planter’s Punch or the Ti’Punch come to mind. But it’s highly unlikely that one pictures a semi-frozen, meringue-topped concoction when thinking of punch. And yet, that’s exactly what the Punch à la Romaine is — and once upon a time, it was one of the most popular dinner service cocktails in the world.
Part cocktail, part sorbet, the Punch à la Romaine is thought to have originated sometime in Europe in the 17th century. As David Wondrich notes in his 2010 book “Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl,” it’s possible the drink evolved from Italian “limonadiers” in Paris, who roamed the city selling lemonade and other refreshments, like frozen sorbets. The Italians, who had spent decades perfecting their lemon sherbets and lemonades, learned that they tasted best when lightened with meringues. And adding alcohol didn’t do anything to negatively impact the consistency.
“The Parisians must have believed one of the Italians was responsible for this new hybrid, for they named it Punch à la Romaine — Roman Punch,” Wondrich writes. “In 1808, it was known widely enough for a recipe to be included in a Swedish cookbook. By 1810, Parisian cafés such as the Jardin Turc and Tortoni’s … were doing turnaway business in it.”
The Punch à la Romaine, or Punch Romaine for short, originally included ingredients like rum, orange juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg whites, all topped with a healthy pour of Champagne. Unlike the egg white cocktails we know today, though, most Punch Romaines were made by beating the egg whites into stiff peaks before various other ingredients were added, working from a meringue-like base. Moreover, the simple syrup and juice aspects were always frozen, resulting in a shaved-ice, sorbet-like drink.
In a further departure from most of the cocktails enjoyed during dinners nowadays, the Punch à la Romaine was actually served as a palate cleanser during multi-course meals, typically between the fish and meat courses.
Despite Punch à la Romaine’s decades of history leading up to the 1900s, French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier is often credited with creating the punch variation in 1906. And while he didn’t create the drink himself, he perfected the version that still exists today, though it’s far less popular now than it was in its heyday at the start of the 20th century.
At that time, the Punch Romaine was so popular that it actually earned a spot on the Titanic’s first-class dinner menu on April 14, 1912 — served between the lamb with mint sauce and roast duckling with apple sauce — on what would be the final dinner served aboard the luxury ocean liner.
Despite enjoying decades of popularity, nowadays, the Punch Romaine remains mostly a thing of the past, in large part because of the decline in popularity of extravagant, multi-course meals. The advent and popularization of frozen cocktails like the Piña Colada and the Frozen Margarita in the mid-1950s certainly didn’t help revive the Punch à la Romaine’s fame, but perhaps the Champagne-topped, sorbet-inspired cocktail will make its way back onto our dinner tables at some point in the future.
