‘Warm the cockles’: Buster’s stout punch. Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Jack Hall. View image in fullscreen ‘Warm the cockles’: Buster’s stout punch. Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Jack Hall. The good mixer Cocktails Cocktail of the week: Buster’s stout punch, from The Prince Bar – recipe A velvety, Guinness-based, punch-style pick-me-up
Prefer the Guardian on Google P unch isn’t just for summer parties, and this Caribbean-inflected one, featuring rum, brandy, stout, lemon and nutmeg, will warm the cockles of a crowd on any autumn evening. It’s named after Prince Buster , the Jamaican ska legend and inspiration for our bar’s name.
Serves 20 250g demerara sugar , or cane sugar 4 large unwaxed lemons 900ml Jamaican dark rum , ideally a well-aged one – Myers’s or Planteray Original Dark for preference 400ml VSOP cognac – we use Martell 300ml Guinness – we use Guinness Foreign Extra Stout or Guinness West Indies Porter Freshly grated nutmeg , to garnish and to taste (optional) Put the sugar in a large bowl, then finely grate in the zest of all four lemons (use a Microplane, if you have one); save the rest of the fruit for later. Gently massage the lemon zest into the sugar, to release the oils, then pour in a litre of hot water from the kettle and stir to dissolve the sugar. Strain the sugar water through a fine sieve and into a punch bowl, to sift out the spent zest.
Measure in the rum, cognac and stout, squeeze in the juice of all four lemons, stir and put in the fridge to chill until your guests arrive.
To serve, stir a good couple of handfuls of ice into the punch, grate over the nutmeg to taste, then ladle into glasses of your choosing. Top each serving with a light dusting of grated nutmeg, if you like.
Will Hawes, co-founder, The Prince Bar , London EC1