Name: Tea Punch
Ingredients: 1 pint cold tea; ⅔ cup whiskey; ¾ cup Jamaica rum; dash of maraschino; sugar to taste; slices of lemon for decoration; slices of orange for decoration

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tea Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the cold tea, whiskey, Jamaica rum, and maraschino in a large pitcher.
Sweeten the mixture to taste with sugar.
Add slices of lemon and orange for decoration.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tea + orangetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together333 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Rum + orangetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together801 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tea + rumtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold tea: Forms the liquid base and dilutes the strong spirits into a drinkable punch.
Whiskey: Provides the main spirit backbone and warming depth of flavor.
Jamaica rum: Adds sweet, molasses-like richness that rounds out the spirits.
Maraschino: Contributes a subtle cherry-almond aroma and a hint of sweetness.