“One of my best friends lives along the Uptown parade route. Every first Sunday they have a big watch party. I always bring this Carnival Punch,” says Katy Casbarian, co-owner of Arnaud’s Restaurant and the French 75 Bar. “The recipe incorporates first-of-the-season Ponchatoula strawberries for the Strawberry cordial, local pecans, funky rum, and Herbsaint and Peychaud’s bitters, which both originated in New Orleans.”
Drinks
Carnival Punch
Hosts in New Orleans serve this festive batch cocktail during parade watch parties
photo: Sara Essex Bradley
Ingredients
Yield: About twenty servings
1 750-ml bottle Hamilton Gold Rum
10 oz. Hamilton Black Rum
Strawberry cordial (recipe below)
Pecan orgeat (recipe below)
2.5 oz. Herbsaint
2 oz. Peychaud's bitters
15 oz. lime juice
5 oz. orange juice
20 oz. black tea, cooled
Pecan orgeat
1 cup crushed pecans
20 cloves
3 oz. brandy
1 oz. aged rum
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
Strawberry Cordial
10 oz. fresh strawberry juice (from Ponchatoula strawberries if you can find them)
4 oz. orange liqueur (such as Pierre Ferrand dry curacao)
½ cup white sugar
Preparation
Combine ingredients in a punch bowl or pitcher. Serve in sugar-rimmed glasses over ice.
For the Pecan Orgeat:
Combine pecans and cloves in brandy and rum and soak for one day. Add sugars to the mixture and combine with 1 cup water in a saucepan. Simmer for twenty minutes and strain, reserving syrup for use.
For the Strawberry Cordial:
Stir all ingredients together until sugar dissolves.
Recipe from Katy Casbarian, co-owner of Arnaud’s Restaurant and the French 75 Bar
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