Holiday Champagne Punch

Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 60 servings using 5-ounce Champagne glasses):

Simple Syrup:
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
12 cinnamon sticks
16 whole cloves

Punch:
8 cups cranberry juice
2 cups pineapple juice (or substitute 1 cup orange juice plus 1 cup grapefruit juice)
2 cups Grand Marnier
4 bottles Champagne

Directions (see our post here for helpful pictures):

Simple Syrup:

• Several hours before (or up to a day or two before) you’ll be serving the punch, put the water, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and cloves into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Remove cinnamon sticks and cloves and strain into a glass or plastic container.
• Store in refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours (or overnight) until well-chilled.

Punch:

• Chill the cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and Champagne in your refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Pour simple syrup, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and Grand Marnier* into a large (1 gallon) punch bowl.
• Add an ice ring or a few large ice cubes.
• Using a ladle, fill glasses 1/2 full with punch, then top with Champagne.

* Bartender’s hints:

• To serve this punch to drinkers and non-drinkers alike, omit the Grand Marnier from the punch bowl. Substitute sparkling cider for Champagne for the non-drinkers, and for your imbibers, add 1 1/2 teaspoons Grand Marnier to their glasses before topping with punch and Champagne.
• This punch is best served without adding ice to your guest’s glasses so use the largest pieces of ice you can find, or use a Bundt pan to make an ice ring for your punch bowl.
• Best of all, this punch is great with “bargain brand” Champagne.

* Note:  Total time for this recipe includes at least 3 hours for chilling the ingredients.  If you can make the simple syrup the night before your party, you’ll only need 5-10 minutes of setup time before your party starts.