Ti Punch
4.2 88 ratings
Ingredients
How to make
Serve in a old-fashioned glass
Prepare
- 1 Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.
- 2 Prepare garnish of lime peel disc. Traditionally, limes used to make this cocktail are not cut into slices or wedges. Instead, cut a round disc from the side of the fruit, large enough that some of the fruit's flesh backs the peel of the disc.
Method
- 3 POUR the rum and sugar into glass.
- 4 Then SQUEEZE the lime disc between finger and thumb before dropping into the cocktail. (This expresses the oil from the skin and little of the juice into the Ti'Punch.)
- 5 STIR and consider adding ice - either one or two large cubes depending on glass size, or preferably, a small chunk of block ice.
Garnish
- 6 There's no additional garnish to the lime disc using in the making of this cocktail but some like to serve with a small spoon to enable the drinker to tease out more juice from the lime disc &/or stir ice.
Flavour profile
50.0% alc./vol.
History
Martinique's national cocktail is deliciously punchy, traditionally made with 50% alc./vol. rhum agricole. Dilution is negligible, even when ice is added. The crucial sugar cane juice (not processed sugar syrup) adds flavour and mellows the rum, making it punchy yet pleasing to drink.
Literally a small rum punch, "Ti" is Creole for the French word 'petit.' Unlike most rum punches, it is not lengthened with water or juice and is often served without ice, despite originating from a warm climate. It is the national cocktail of the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, where "Ti" is pronounced "Tee." It is also popular in Réunion, Maurice, Haiti, French Guiana, and other French-speaking Caribbean islands. On these islands, it is often drunk straight without ice and followed by a large glass of chilled water, called a 'crase' in Martinique. The earliest known written mention appears as a "yon Ti Punch" in Lafcadio Hearn's 1890 book, Two Years in the West Indies, where the travel writer recounted his time in Martinique.