I am writing from a coffee shop, so excuse me if this is not my best work. Hopefully, I’ll have a beer and pretzel come editing time. I come to you today to talk about punch and Charles Munat. Though I would advise against punching Charles because he has several brothers. He is my buddy living in Argentina who is one of the many kind people that helped my career out along my way to the middle.
Andrew to Charles: Now who looks pretentious? Oh, I do.
He overlooked my being an angry young man (because he is an angry old man) to help introduce me to many bartenders from around the world. Charles Munat created the website for the Washington State Bartender’s Guild and manages the website for Tales of the Cocktail. Charles, who is a good guy, recently got robbed of his laptop and back up drives and thusly his livelihood. This would be like a mechanic having all of his tools stolen if said mechanic had also written his credit card numbers on his wrenches.
Photo by Chad, he works for Hendricks, not as an employee, he just accepts gin as payment
The Rob Roy here in Seattle (a place where I tend bar on the weekends) is doing a $20 bottomless punch bowl fundraiser for Charles Munat. The event is Wednesday June 8th and you should take a cab. We’ll be serving up a Dave Wondrich original: The Sassenach Punch, a blend of Hendricks Gin, scotch, lemon, blood orange and honey.
Jon Santer is actually a brick house, he just apears to be a man.
But, wait, there is more, the burly chess-master Jon Santer, (another awesome guy that I’m sure I know because of Charles) is sponsoring this event through Hendricks Gin, and all of the proceeds go to a guy that just wants to help everyone.
I will be there.
And in the spirit of Chas I am going to be inflammatory:
Everyone has been talking about how hot punch is for the past year plus and I want to throw my two angry Abes in. Punches on cocktail menus is another gimmicky way to get press on Dave Wondrich’s books. I’m very pro-Wondrich but very anti, “reading the same god damn article on punch in every local publication around the country,” for the past year. To quote Portlandia, punch, “IS OVER.”
Recycled content is OVER!
But Charles’ is actually a big ol’ softie:
However, the exact opposite is true for a gathering of friends. Friends and strangers gathered around punch is beautiful and the true way to enjoy punch. Stir the punch bowl with the conversation stick.* When expertly crafted, punch truly stands as a king among lesser drinks with subtlety that can’t be replicated in cocktails. And where subtlety fails, sheer volume picks up the slack. The best way to enjoy this style of drinking is at a party, you don’t have to find a place to sit or figure out what cocktail to order next, just order, “more please.”
Getting crunk one tea cup at a time
I love Charles so much I had an argument with myself for him. But seriously, thanks for your help Charles, I hope you to see you back on track soon.
Cheers my friend.
*I was just pretending to be drunk for that sentence.
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