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If Monday night’s Flowing Bowl Punch Party, hosted by drinkboston at Eastern Standard, were a high-diving competition, it would score a perfect 10 for both execution and technical difficulty. I mean, how often do you walk into a bar and see 60-odd people holding decorative cups filled with punch made from 200-year-old recipes? How often are you served a drink that involves steeping three kinds of booze, multiple fruits and spices and green tea in hot water for several hours, adding milk, straining the curdled mixture through cheesecloth twice and chilling the finished product down with a massive ring of ice decorated with pineapple slices? And how often do you see bartenders ladling liquid out of large, flowing bowls instead of shaking cocktails?

Thanks to Jackson Cannon and Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli for concocting the four punches — all deceptively potent and enjoyably distinct from one another — from recipes in David Wondrich’s Imbibe!, the Savoy Cocktail Book and Martha Washington’s own notebook. And thanks to the rest of Eastern Standard’s staff for the charcuterie, deviled eggs, beef carpaccio and other tasty bites, and the gracious service.

Below is a list of the punches that were served, along with their key ingredients and bits of historical poetry revealing that odes to alcoholic beverages in America existed well before the Algonquin Round Table. To create these punches yourself, either consult the aforementioned sources or click on the links below.

Philadelphia Fish-House Punch
Toast of Schuylkill and to Independence!

Lemon juice
Cane sugar
Mixture of cognac, rum and house-made peach brandy
Cold water

Created by a colonial rod and gun club on the banks of Pennsylvania’s Schuykill River and remembered in modern times thanks to a recipe passed on by a Philadelphia lawyer, Charles Godfrey Leland.

“There’s a little place just out of town,
Where, if you go to lunch,
They’ll make you forget your mother-in-law
With a drink called Fish-House Punch.”

Martha Washington’s Rum Punch
Cheers to our first First Lady!

Juice of lemons & oranges
Spice mix of clove, cinnamon & nutmeg
Oranges
Curacao, light & dark rums
Water

This recipe is said to have come from Martha Washington’s own journal.

“This ancient Silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times,
Of joyous days, and jolly nights and merry Christmas Chimes
They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave and true,
That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new.”

Chatham Artillery Punch
For soldiers young and old, men of action, brave and bold!

Pineapples, lemons, oranges & cherries
Native wine, rum & rye
Cherry nectar
Strong green tea & champagne

The house punch of the Chatham Artillery of Savannah, Georgia, formed in 1786. Recipe available in Imbibe!

“When you visit the town of Savannah
Enlist ‘neath the temperance banneh,
For if you should lunch,
On artillery punch,
It will treat you in sorrowful manneh.”

Milk Punch #1
Celebrate the wit and wisdom of Aphra Behn.

Juice and rind of lemons
Pineapple
Spice mix of clove, coriander, cinnamon & green cardamom
Brandy, rum & batavia arrack
Strong green tea, water & milk

Aphra Behn was a 17th-century English dramatist and novelist and the “first woman ever to earn her living solely by writing,” according to Imbibe! She is also credited with inventing milk punch, a drink that is “undeniably smooth, but not necessarily lush,” writes Wondrich. This recipe is the Milk Punch #1 from the Savoy Cocktail Book.

“If all be true that I do think,
There are five reasons we should drink;
Good Punch, a friend, or being dry
Or least we should be by and by,
Or any other reason why!”

You saved the date, but have you made reservations yet for drinkboston’s Flowing Bowl Punch Party at Eastern Standard this Monday, June 30? No? You were waiting to hear just what was going to be in those flowing bowls, weren’t you? Well, here are the goods. Jackson Cannon and his talented staff will mix four classic punches and serve them out of traditional bowls in the restaurant’s front lounge and porch area. The featured liquids are Martha Washington’s Rum Punch, Philadelphia Fish House Punch, Milk Punch No. 1 (from the Savoy cocktail book)* and … a mystery punch to be determined. You’ll just have to show up to find out what’s in that bowl.

Remember, this isn’t your grandmother’s punch (cheap champagne, ginger ale, orange sherbet). It’s your great-great-great-great-great grandmother’s punch (strong spirits, sugar, fresh citrus, spices). Rest assured that, while these mixtures contain plenty of rum, brandy and other bracing liquors, they are remarkably balanced and not overly sweet.

Don your party threads and commune with us around the flowing bowl. To reserve tickets by credit card, call Eastern Standard at 617-532-9100. Tickets are $30 and include servings of four different kinds of punch and passed appetizers. The party starts at 5:30 p.m. and lasts ’til the punch runs out.

Want to receive email invitations to drinkboston events? Send a request to drinkboston at comcast dot net.

* The recipe for Milk Punch No. 1 is complicated. It involves steeping brandy, Jamaica rum, Batavia Arrack, spices, lemon, pineapple and green tea in boiling water, then adding milk and more lemon, then straining the whole curdled mixture into a container and serving it cold. You have to try it to believe it.

One of Boston’s best bartenders, Jackson Cannon, is the subject of an admiring profile in today’s Boston Globe. Congrats, Jackson — well deserved. Careful readers will notice that one of writer Meaghan Agnew’s sources was … moi.

This is a good time to point out that Jackson and his hardworking, talented bar staff are currently doing some recipe testing for drinkboston’s Flowing Bowl Punch Party. The party takes place at Eastern Standard on Monday, June 30. Watch this space for more details as the event’s menu takes shape…

“For nearly two hundred years, from the 1670s to the 1850s, the Kingdom of Mixed Drinks was ruled by the Bowl of Punch,” writes David Wondrich in Imbibe!, his book on “Professor” Jerry Thomas, bartending pioneer. For most modern-day people, punch is considered the tamest of drinks, involving roughly one part cheap champagne to 16 parts fruit juice, ginger ale and orange sherbet.

That is not the sort of punch that will be served at drinkboston’s Flowing Bowl party at Eastern Standard on June 30. No, we will offer up four different recipes of old-school — really old-school — punch, or, as Wondrich puts it: “A large-bore mixture of spirits, citrus, sugar, water, and spice that bears the same relation to the anemic concoctions that pass under its name today that gladiatorial combat does to a sorority pillow fight.”

More details to come, but put this on your calendar and start making your reservations:

Flowing Bowl Party
Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks
Monday, June 30, 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are $30, which includes four servings of punch and passed appetizers
For reservations call Eastern Standard at 617-532-9100

Hope to see you there!

Cambridge photographer Matt Demers, whose fabulous work made the LUPEC Boston Little Black Book of Cocktails possible, took some terrific photos of drinkboston’s World Cocktail Day party at Green Street on May 13. Here are a few highlights. You can view the rest of the photos on my Flickr site. Thanks again to everyone who came by to celebrate!

If you couldn’t get into the sold-out World Cocktail Day party at Green Street on Tuesday, I’m sorry to tell you that it was a ton o’ fun. In fact, it was an evening I was downright thankful for. It marked the end of World Cocktail Week, whose frivolity contrasted unavoidably with a coinciding spate of tragedies: the cyclone in Myanmar, the earthquake in China, tornadoes in the U.S. (not to mention the continuing grimness in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc, etc). I’m not trying to bring anyone down here. I’m just saying there were times during the evening when I paused, soaked up the good vibe among the crowd and thanked my lucky stars.

Our guest bartenders, four knowledgable and talented New England gentlemen, each mixed a vintage cocktail of their choice, then went from table to table recounting that libation’s origins and moment in history. They time-traveled from 1870s San Francisco to an 1880s bartender’s manual to the Spanish-American War (1898) to an early 20th-century obsession with songs about maidens. The cocktails (below) were accompanied by flatbread pizza, beef tongue tacos and other tasty treats from the Green Street kitchen. We started with an innocent-seeming Maiden’s Prayer and ended with a brassy Remember the Maine, at which point the joke was whether anyone would remember the Maine.

Maiden’s Prayer
by Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli of Eastern Standard

3/4 oz Plymouth Gin
3/4 oz white rum
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 dash orange bitters
Shake well over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a flower. Based on a variation (circa 1930) of the original (circa 1907), which may have been inspired by a hit piano tune of the late 1800s.

Nicol’s Secret Pisco Punch (without cocaine)
by John Gertsen of No. 9 Park

6 parts BarSol pisco
3 parts lemon juice
2 parts pineapple syrup
1 part water
Shake, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with pineapple. The recipe originated with Duncan Nicol, the proprietor of San Francisco’s Bank Exchange saloon from the late 1870s until Prohibition. The secret’s out: a wee bit of gum arabic (which comes in a white powder — get it?) makes this a silky sweet punch.

Bijou
by Brother Cleve, cocktail historian and mixologist

1/3 Plymouth Gin
1/3 sweet vermouth
1/3 green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Stir well over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry or a lemon twist. A Golden Age cocktail dating back to Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual in 1882.

Remember the Maine
by John Myers, Portland, Maine-based bartender and cocktail historian

1 1/2 oz good rye whiskey or bourbon (i.e. Maker’s Mark)
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
1-2 tsp of cherry brandy
1/2 tsp absinthe or Pernod veritas
Stir well over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass with a lemon twist. Named for the rallying cry of the Spanish-American war, the cocktail is described in Charles H. Baker Jr.’s The Gentleman’s Companion (1939). Myers’ note: “Any absinthe substitute will work, but the ‘cherry brandy’ is up for some interpretation. Different drinks occur — but still work, so little is deployed — if Cherry Heering or maraschino are used.”

World Cocktail Day at Green Street benefited the Museum of the American Cocktail, which launched World Cocktail Week. Plymouth Gin, Maker’s Mark bourbon and BarSol Pisco were the evening’s sponsors. Many thanks to Green Street bar manager Misty Kalkofen, owner Dylan Black and everyone else in the kitchen, behind the bar and out on the floor for totally kicking ass.

Look, a cool new event!

World Cocktail Day
Tuesday, May 13, 7:00 p.m.
Green Street restaurant, 280 Green St., Central Square, Cambridge
Tickets $35
Reservations recommended: call Green Street at 617-876-1655

This is gonna be fun. On Tuesday, May 13, drinkboston and Green Street restaurant will celebrate World Cocktail Day with a party to benefit the organization that launched the event: the Museum of the American Cocktail. World Cocktail Day is the culmination of a series of international festivities marking World Cocktail Week. We will join revelers in Aspen, Australia, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Singapore.

The Museum of the American Cocktail established World Cocktail Week “to celebrate the rich history of cocktails and recognize the craftsmanship and skill of the bartenders who have been mixing them for over 200 years.” Established in 2005 and forced into limbo by Hurricane Katrina, the Museum reopens on July 21 (right after Tales of the Cocktail) in its original hometown, New Orleans. It will be housed with the Southern Food & Beverage Museum at the Riverwalk Mall, just outside the French Quarter. If you want rock-solid cred within the cocktail community, become a member.

Green Street’s bar manager, Misty Kalkofen, and owner, Dylan Black, and I have invited four notable bartenders to mix and discuss a vintage cocktail of their choice, with a range of styles and eras represented.

Brother Cleve, cocktail historian and mixologist
Bijou (gin, sweet vermouth, green Chartreuse, orange bitters), a Golden Age cocktail dating back to Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual  in 1882, and featured in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book of recipes served in London’s Savoy Hotel during American Prohibition.

John Gertsen, principal bartender of No. 9 Park and named one of America’s top bartenders by Playboy magazine
Nicol’s Secret Pisco Punch (pisco, pineapple syrup, lemon juice, water), created in San Francisco in the 1870s using Peru’s clear, unaged brandy.

John Myers, Portland, Maine-based bartender and cocktail historian and co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail
Remember the Maine (good rye or bourbon, sweet vermouth, cherry brandy, absinthe or Pernod), described in Charles H. Baker Jr.’s The Gentleman’s Companion, published in 1939. “Stir briskly in clock-wise fashion — this makes it sea-going, presumably!” wrote Baker.

Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli, bartender at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks
Maiden’s Prayer (gin, white rum, lemon juice, Cointreau, orange bitters), based on a variation (circa 1930) of the original (circa 1907), which may have been inspired by a hit piano tune of the late 1800s.

To reserve tickets by credit card, call Green Street at 617-876-1655. Tickets are $35 and include four cocktails and passed appetizers. Green Street is accessible via the Central Square stop on the MBTA red line.

Thanks to the following Museum sponsors for their donations: BarSol Pisco, Cointreau liqueur, Depaz Rhum, Makers Mark, Pernod Ricard and Plymouth Gin.

Save the date: drinkboston and Green Street are getting ready to throw another cocktail party. On the evening of Tuesday, May 13, we’ll celebrate World Cocktail Day, the culmination of a worldwide slew of festivities marking World Cocktail Week. Proceeds from our event will support the Museum of the American Cocktail, which established World Cocktail Week “to celebrate the rich history of the cocktail and recognize the craftsmanship and skill of the bartenders who have been mixing them for over 200 years.”

Green street bar manager Misty Kalkofen, owner Dylan Black and drinkboston have invited a group of notable bartenders, including Museum co-founder John Myers, to mix and discuss a historic drink of their choice, with a range of cocktail styles and eras represented. We’ll be part of an international party, with other World Cocktail Week events happening in Aspen, Australia, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Singapore, to name a few.

The Museum, which is always seeking new members, will reopen this July in its original hometown, New Orleans. It’ll be housed with the Southern Food & Beverage Museum at the Riverwalk Mall, just outside the French Quarter. Museum curator Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh (author of Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails) has designed an exhibit encompassing 200 years of cocktail history that includes vintage cocktail shakers, Prohibition-era literature, music, and cocktail memorabilia from the collections of the Museum’s founders. The Museum will also offer monthly seminars.

Watch this space for more details about World Cocktail Day at Green Street in the coming week or so — and if you want to receive an invite via email, contact drinkboston at comcast dot net.

Drinkboston contributor Scott Howe was trying to explain Tales of the Cocktail to his fellow office workers, most of whom have never sampled a Sazerac, never mind traveled to the Deep South in midsummer to discuss the history of the Martini. The notion of a “cocktail conference” wasn’t quite registering with them. As they gave him quizzical looks, he hit upon an analogy. “It’s like MacWorld for drunks.” They nodded in understanding.

Tales isn’t just a conference. It’s a giant, week-long, educational cocktail party in the birthplace of the cocktail, New Orleans. And it’s a pilgrimage that every Craft Cocktail Convert in the nation makes at least once to anoint him/herself with Peychaud’s bitters. Where else can people attend classes where the instructors serve drinks and don’t assign homework?

Tickets for Tales of the Cocktail, which takes place July 16-20 at the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter, go on sale today. If you’re thinking of going and want to stay at the hotel, book your room ASAP — attendees get a special rate of $99/night. All the info you need about seminars, events, dinners, hotel reservations, sponsors, etc. is on the Tales website.

Oh, and for the first time this year, there’ll be a group blog, Blogging Tales of the Cocktail: 2008, where drinks bloggers from around the country (me included) review seminars and discuss their experiences, among other topics. In case you missed my impressions from last year’s TOTC, click here.

The Independent’s cheeky and clever head bartender, Evan Harrison, had a dream. He would take the cases of third-rate, Cluny blended scotch that somehow ended up in the restaurant’s basement, create a special menu of cocktails, and sell the drinks for $5. And the Independent said, “Yea brother, and we will donate the money from those scotch cocktails to Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services.”

That’s how Scotch for Old People came about. If you’re tired of cocktail events that take the easy way out by featuring premium spirits, if you want to relive that 1982 wedding reception in the VFW hall, if you want to know what your grandfather was drinking when he came back from Korea, then go to the Indo on the evening of Monday, March 31.

A special guest will join Evan behind the bar that night: drinkboston’s own Scott Howe, who, appropriately enough, hasn’t been on the stick since helping out at his dad’s bar in Worcester during high school.

Since the Indo is one of Boston’s best bars, Scotch for Old People isn’t just about cranking out Scotch and Sodas and Rusty Nails. Here are some of the rough-meets-refined tipples you’re in for:

Gretna Green
1 1/2 oz Cluny scotch, 1/2 oz green Chartreuse, 1 oz lemon, 1/2 oz honey

Inverness
2 oz Cluny scotch, 1/2 oz lemon, 1 tsp orgeat, 1 tsp curacao

Bobby Burns
1 oz Cluny scotch, 1 oz sweet vermouth, splash Benedictine

Cluny Sour
2 oz Cluny scotch, 3/4 oz lemon, 1/4 oz simple syrup

Gertsie’s Gick
1 oz Cluny scotch, 1 oz Lillet Blanc, 1/2 oz Drambuie

The Indo’s general manager, Jess Willis, says, “Scotch for Old People will run from 8:00 until we run out of scotch, or 1:00 a.m., whichever comes first.” Hint: Monday nights are popular with bar industry folk, who will drink just about anything on their night off, so it’s entirely possible the Cluny could be drained by midnight. See you there.