Ponce
The most famous digestive of Livorno was born around 1700. The Livorno punch seems to derive from the English punch, widespread in the city by the large British community, which seems to derive from Hindi pancha, which means five, since five are the ingredients we need to prepare it: water, sugar, brandy, lemon and cinnamon.
The legend, instead, says that the birth of punch occurred accidentally due to the breaking of some barrels of rum on bales carrying coffee beans; this is how the dockers discovered the original taste that the liqueur gave to coffee. However, punch is not just a simple coffee but a drink that enclose the history of a place and its mixture of cultures; English for the rum and Arabic for the coffee. A meetsmixing of ingredients in the same way these nations have mixed for centuries in the "meticcia" Livorno.
Compared to the traditional English recipe, the water has been replaced with coffee and aquavite with rum or, just to say it at the leghornese way, "rumme".
Today the ponce recipe is registered under the DOC brand by the Livorno delegation of the Accademia della Cucina and the 5 ingredients are:
coffee
rum
sugar
lemon
Mastic or cinnamon
Put two teaspoons of sugar in a large and thick glass and almost half a glass of rum, heat it with the steam of the machine and add the coffee and a lemon zest and you will get the ponce.
The legend, instead, says that the birth of punch occurred accidentally due to the breaking of some barrels of rum on bales carrying coffee beans; this is how the dockers discovered the original taste that the liqueur gave to coffee. However, punch is not just a simple coffee but a drink that enclose the history of a place and its mixture of cultures; English for the rum and Arabic for the coffee. A meetsmixing of ingredients in the same way these nations have mixed for centuries in the "meticcia" Livorno.
Compared to the traditional English recipe, the water has been replaced with coffee and aquavite with rum or, just to say it at the leghornese way, "rumme".
Today the ponce recipe is registered under the DOC brand by the Livorno delegation of the Accademia della Cucina and the 5 ingredients are:
coffee
rum
sugar
lemon
Mastic or cinnamon
Put two teaspoons of sugar in a large and thick glass and almost half a glass of rum, heat it with the steam of the machine and add the coffee and a lemon zest and you will get the ponce.