MAKIN’S

Here you see the ingredients for roughly five gallons of Vintage Popskull, more popularly known as Chatham Artillery Punch.

From the Cocktail Times website comes this bit o’ Historical Context:

The Chatham Artillery is the oldest military organization of record in Georgia. Organized May 1, 1786, their first official duty was to pay tribute at the funeral of General Nathaniel Greene.

When George Washington visited Savannah, May 12, 1792, the Chatham Artillery saluted him with 26 discharges from their field pieces. The company found such favor in the President’s eyes that shortly [afterward] the company received the gift of the “Washington Guns” captured at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.

The Washington Guns were fired to salute President James Monroe when he visited Savannah in May 1819 for the launching of the S.S. Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.

These occasions were undoubtedly celebrated with Chatham Artillery Punch. No one is sure how the heady concoction originated, but Chatham Artillery members believe that gentle ladies made up the first beverage. Then, one by one, officers of the Artillery sneaked in and added this and that, thus creating Savannah’s most noted drink in two centuries.

Right. That would explain the, er, ahhh...extreme variety of the Alcohol-Bearing Tipples that comprise this very Heady Beverage. Wine - Catawba wine, no less. Rum. Gin. Brandy. Rye whiskey. And a dab of Benedictine.

It sits in my kitchen, now, in a slowly pulsating five-gallon bucket. Immediately before consuming it, we will add the Finishing Touch: the equivalent of one case of Champagne (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).

It will be delicious.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.