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Tea Punch

A chilled punch made with sherry, sugar, lemon, green tea, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Green tea and tea share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Tea Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the lemons.

  2. Pour hot tea over the rinds.

  3. Pour lemon juice over the sugar.

  4. Once the tea is cold, strain it from the rinds.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the strained tea over the lemon and sugar mixture.

  2. Add the sherry wine.

  3. Strain again.

  4. Pour over fine crushed ice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Green tea + teatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Wine + teatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Lemon + green teatop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sherry wine
Forms the wine base, adding alcohol and a rich, dry flavor to the punch.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Supply acidity and fragrant oils from the peel, giving brightness and aroma.
Green tea
Adds tannins for a light, slightly bitter astringency and a herbal note.

The step that matters

Steeping the tea over the rinds. Hot tea pulls bitter tannins and oils from the lemon rinds. Letting it sit too long makes the punch harsh, so the tea should be strained off the rinds once it has cooled to the flavor you want.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, sugar, green tea, tea):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, sugar, green tea, tea. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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