Tea Punch Was the First Cocktail

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2024-06-11 21:00:04

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE JUNE 8, 2024, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE .

Cocktail aficionados know that a Long Island Iced Tea contains no tea. It gets its tea-like color from dark liquor and cola (it also might not be from Long Island, but that’s another story).

These days, you don’t have to look far to find alcoholic beverages that actually are made with tea. Bartenders around the world mix Earl Grey martinis or chai-spiced White Russians, while the beverage company Owl’s Brew has been selling canned tea cocktails in flavors like jasmine and blackberry since 2013.

It’s easy to see why tea makes a pleasing addition to a mixed drink. Aside from its flavor, tea provides herbal, astringent notes from tannins and acids. But you might be surprised to learn that tea cocktails are far from a recent trend.

As early as 1632, traders employed by the British East India Company were drinking a beverage known as “punch.” Considered the first modern mixed drink, punch was likely invented due to the scarcity of wine and beer in English merchant outposts in Asia. Distilled spirits kept better on long voyages and took up less space, but had to be diluted with available ingredients to create something sippable.