As little ladies in Nineteen Nineties Trinidad, my youthful sister and I might stand round in awe every time the Osterizer made its manner from on prime of the kitchen cabinets to the counter. Our father by no means cooked, however when it got here to creating Peanut Punch, he was the one within the kitchen. The Peanut Punch we sometimes drank as youngsters got here from store-bought, 250-milliliter cartons that we’d take to high school in our lunch kits, however his was created from scratch. Watching him throw elements into the blender at all times felt like being backstage at a present. Nowadays, in my Brooklyn studio condominium, I make my very own model virtually each morning for breakfast.
Peanut Punch is a silky, chilly, blended drink made creamy by pulverizing uncooked or roasted peanuts (or peanut butter, for comfort) with cow’s milk, sweetened condensed milk and typically sugar and bitters. It’s primarily a well being drink, typically made with nutrient-rich elements like sea moss, channa (often known as chickpeas) or beets, and known as “factor for the again,” or “sturdy again,” because the Jamaicans name it—an aphrodisiac that may make males sturdy and virile. Peanut Punch may also be a meal substitute, a candy deal with or a strategy to put some meat in your bones, contemplating its excessive protein, carb and calorie content material.
Like all conventional Caribbean meals and drinks, there isn’t any fastened recipe. Throughout the Caribbean, it’s made at houses, bars and by streetside punch distributors (generally known as punchmen) who customise the drink based on the drinker’s choice or the maker’s contact.
In some islands, the well being beverage transforms right into a cocktail. In Dominica, for instance, native favourite spirits like Baileys, Ponche Kuba, Amarula and Disaronno may be discovered within the combine. St. Lucia, in the meantime, usually favors a heavy pour of spiced rum, which echoes the drink’s vanilla and cinnamon notes, or Nutz’n Rum, a domestically made, spiced peanut rum cream.
Baidawi Assing, Trini meals knowledgeable and director of Eat Ah Meals, fondly remembers the Peanut Punch made at Harry’s Punch in Trinidad within the Eighties. Again then, the well-known punch cart chain was only a single cart in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, working with two blenders. Late at night time, after partying on the town, Assing would order a 32-ounce cup of Peanut Punch made with a pour of Guinness. (The stout has an extended historical past within the Caribbean, and gives a particular model of the beer catering to native tastes, known as Guinness International Additional Stout.) Guinness, he says, provides a “punch” to the punch, and likewise injects some bitterness that contrasts with the drink’s sweetness whereas emboldening the nice and cozy and woody flavors. Texturally, the foamy beer thins and smooths out the thick punch. Assing’s recipe for the drink takes inspiration from that serve.
In Jamaica, in the meantime, Peanut Punch usually will get spiked with a mixture of Wray & Nephew’s overproof white rum and Guinness or is made with Roots wine, a Rastafarian drink created from fermented herbs. Jamaican meals knowledgeable Andrew “Chef Irie” Sinclair says one other frequent riff, made with Crimson Bull, is named “Tear Up Sheet” (the identify is a sexual innuendo). Punchmen in Kingston pre-make their batches and serve drinks from buckets or bottle them to promote at Montego Bay markets out of coolers. Jamaicans, Sinclair says, can knock again a number of cups of the drink. “It ain’t no meal substitute there.”
The precise origins of Peanut Punch will not be well-documented. What I do know is that the drink has lengthy been a staple in Rastafarian ital delicacies, the place it’s made with out dairy or alcohol, and Peanut Punch–like drinks have existed in lots of cultures which have been part of the Caribbean’s complicated historical past of migration. From Indigenous teams in central Brazil, who floor peanuts with maize to make a drink, to Nigerians, who make an analogous creamy peanut porridge known as kunu gyada, to East Indians, who introduced five-ingredient punches known as paanch to the Caribbean within the 1800s, the drink appears to have roots in lots of locations.
In my private historical past, I don’t know my household recipe for Peanut Punch, or if there even is one. My father handed away a yr in the past, so I can’t ask him for his technique. The Peanut Punch I make in New York in 2024 is a far cry from his in 1993—there isn’t any condensed milk, or dairy for that matter, and I add a banana, whereas he used sugar. I don’t freshly grate my nutmeg. The variations over time and place are to be anticipated, although: This can be a drink you can add virtually something however the kitchen sink to, with a historical past that spans centuries. Two punches are not often created equal.
