A festive rosy and green drink is made with a traditional rum punch theme, but using fresh cranberries and mint.
By Aysegül Sanford
I wanted a rum punch recipe that truly takes it up a notch and would be appropriate for the season. That is when I decided to use the fresh cranberries I had in the fridge. But for my kind of rum punch, I decided to use a good quality rum, such as Flor de Caña. The idea was making a quick cranberry juice and mixing it with freshly squeezed lime juice and rum. Though it looked pretty, it needed some color. That is why, at the last minute, I added fresh mint leaves to both enhance the flavor and give it a nice contrast of color making it a perfect drink for the holidays. 
As you can see in the pictures, it not only looked very festive, but also ended up being a perfect Caribbean style holiday drink that I will be making in the years to come.
PrintCranberry Rum Punch with Mint
- Yield: 4 to 6 drinks 1x
Description
A festive rosy and green drink is made with a traditional rum punch theme, but using fresh cranberries and mint.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups fresh cranberries (picked over and washed)
- 2 ½ cups of water
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (divided)
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves (washed and dried – plus more for garnishing)
- ½ cup lime juice (freshly squeezed from 4–5 limes)
- 1½ cup rum (such as Flor de Cana)
Instructions
- Place the cranberries, water, and ½ cup sugar in a small saucepan. Stirring regularly, bring it to a boil, and then, let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the granulated sugar completely dissolves. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
- In the mean time, place fresh mint leaves and 3 tablespoons in a measuring cup. Mash it with a muddler until mint leaves are completely bruised and sugar is dissolved.
- Strain the cranberry syrup into a pitcher. Reserve ½ cup of the cranberries for garnishing, for later.
- Add the lime juice, rum, and mint in to the pitcher. Stir it until they are all mixed.
- Strain the mixture through a medium mash strainer pressing gently to make sure you get all the juices out of the mint leaves.
- Pour it over tall glasses filled with ice cubes, and garnish each glass with fresh mint leaves and reserved cranberries.
- Category: Cocktail
