One of Sour,
Two of Sweet,
Three of Strong,
Four of Weak

If you’ve ever wondered the ratios for a good punchbowl, there they are. In this case, sour refers to citrus, sweet is sugar or other sweetener, strong is spirits, and weak is water. For the record, it’s also tradition to add a fifth ingredient: something herbal like nutmeg or tea. Because of these five core ingredients, the concoction acquired the name “punch” (an anglicizing of the Hindi and Farsi word for “five”). Two centuries ago, the punchbowl was a big deal. Sure, there were the infamous pirate punches, but exclusive social clubs were known for their punch recipes as well. What makes a “punch” different from a “cocktail” though? It’s all a matter of scale.

At social gatherings of old, people would sit around a table with a large bowl of punch surrounded by individual cups. In Europe, the stuff was often served hot or room temperature, but in North America, the increasing availability of ice changed the game. Individual drinks in smaller glasses became a possibility as the ice industry grew, and by the mid-19th Century, a cocktail boom was in full swing. Scaling down the basic punch ratios and adding ice, the cocktail made drink customization possible, granting a hefty dose of individualism to the beverage world and effectively birthing modern mixology. This transition from the communal to the individual makes me think of another technological advance which yielded a similar result.

The end of October always marks the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, and while Martin Luther receives a lot of praise around this time of year, we often overlook another hero of the Reformation: Johannes Gutenberg. Before Gutenberg’s creation of movable type, owning a bible was impossible except for those wealthy enough to afford a handwritten copy. Theology had to flow from those with access to sacred texts, and such access was limited. In 1455, Gutenberg’s bible put the Christian holy book into more hands than ever before, making widespread study of the bible possible. Over five centuries later, roughly 87% of American homes have at least one bible, and the average household has three, allowing people to pick up and read the bible for themselves with relative ease.

Society has trended toward individualization and customization these last few centuries, but whether it’s with the bible or cocktails, we must also make an effort to preserve the communal aspect. When the bible is read in isolation, we read our own biases into it and miss the complexities of a communal reading. Similarly, when cocktails are taken only in isolation, innovation stagnates; there’s something to be said for learning from the tastes of others or even gathering around a punchbowl. Individualization is a good thing, but when left unchecked, we get siloed.

Bring back the punchbowl approach.
Bring back the community gathering.