Episode 67: Do Not Talk About Fish Club – Fish House Punch

Monster in a Glass

This Fish House Punch takes us to all the way back to colonial America and includes stories you probably didn’t learn in elementary school. This punch is truly a monster in a glass, or maybe a goblet, or bowl, or whatever people drank punch out of in the 18th century. Containing nearly all the booze and all the sugar, this surely guaranteed the founding fathers could stay up all night getting trashed while creating a nation.
In this episode we discuss the origins of the Fish House Punch in the the social club known as the Schuylkill Fishing Company, AKA the Colony of Schuylkill. We also take a look at other Philadelphia gentleman’s clubs of the time, including the Junto Club founded by Benjamin Franklin.
Rumor has it that George Washington allegedly drank so much Fish House Punch once, that he couldn’t write in his diary for three days! THREE WHOLE DAYS?!! Wait, was this a standard for judging how bad your hangover was? The founding fathers were known for running up pretty large tavern bills, especially during election season, but could this story really be true? Join us as we try to figure out if the first Commander-in-Chief was a lightweight, a heavyweight, or just hated writing in his diary.
There are variations on the ingredients in this punch, but here is the ingredients used for the tasting:
4 oz Jamaican rum
2 oz brandy
1/2 oz peach brandy
1/2 oz maraschino
2 oz green tea
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
champagne