By Candice Dayoan
“Candice, want to go to a bookstore?”
“Sure.”
“Candice, want to go to a punchbowl competition party?”
“Like juice…?”
“Yes.”
“With–”
“Alcohol, yes.”
“Wait, is the alcohol going to be IN the bookstore?”
“I’ll see you there at four.”
If there’s an event taking place in a local bookstore, I’m pretty likely to go. If you combine books and drinking, well I’m a normal 27-year-old girl. Of COURSE I’m going.
A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I closed out January 2010 with a bang.
Well, I guess with a punch.
Here was the deal: either make a punch to enter into the contest or pay $5. I elected to pay the $5 to be able to party in a freakin’ bookstore. The location, Omnivore Books, is a bookstore specializing in books about food. Though I had heard of the store, I had never stepped foot in it before the punchbowl competition.
The actual space was surprisingly tiny. In fact, I got there a couple of minutes after four and met up with my friends and it wasn’t crowded. We were a little worried because there were only two punch entries.
I passed the time browsing through one of the vintage cookbooks they had in stock. I turned to put it back on the shelf and when I turned back around to chat with my friends the place had become packed and ten more punchbowl entries had shown up.
When they first handed out the tiny little cups, we were a little disappointed. How were we possibly going to be able to enjoy ourselves with these tiny little things?
Turns out we were wrong. It allowed us to try every single punch quickly without wasting too much of the ones we didn’t like. Not wanting to disappoint, every single entry was an alcoholic entry. I don’t know if it’s because I’m from Hawai’i, but I absolutely love punch. There were some entries that tasted just like what I’d get at a bar in Hawai’i, but others had a neat little twist to them. We each started developing our clear favorites.
Personally I liked entry number one, which was aptly named “Tropical Omnivore” Pineapple Rum. It was pretty delicious. I also have a weakness for rum and pineapple juice. Again, I’m chalking that up to the fact that I developed my alcoholic tastes in Hawai’i.
About 20 minutes in we noticed that some of the punches had already run out. My friend brought up a great point: The entry-to-attendee ratio was not good. Since the winner of the contest would be determined by attendee vote, my friend hypothesized that the one that was going to win was the one that actually had enough to last the longest throughout the competition. Although there were some really great entries (another favorite of mine had fresh grapefruit in it), we predicted that the one called “Mission Gutter Punch” was going to win.
The Mission Gutter Punch team tactic was this:
- Bring a really big-ass punchbowl.
- Make it out of cheap ingredients (like cans of Bud Light)
- Bring a whole case of beer and a huge bottle of vodka so that you can refill the punchbowl at least seven times
- Stake out a corner and just make sure you keep refilling it anytime it gets anywhere near low.
My friend ended up being right, they’re the ones that won. The bookstore staff referred to it as “The punch everyone hated that they loved,” which was true. I must have had five (mini)cups of the stuff. It was pretty delicious. Not the most crazy-delicious, but with brilliant competitive tactics like that, they deserved the win.
Thanks to Omnivore Books for hosting. They happen to do a lot of cool free and cheap events, and I’m definitely going back.
You can read Omnivore Books’ official report on the event here:
http://www.thesecondlunch.com/2010/01/omnivore-books-punch-contest/
[Image via BoozeBooks.com]
Oh man, this is an event I wish I’d gone to – it is right up my alley!
Great post!
K
Wait though! The second place punch (the Kagetaka’s Grog) had the LEAST amount of punch and ran out first!!
As to the punch:attendee issue, I too must say I was a little bummed although, I ended up pretty buzzed by the end, so no worries!
Sam! Thanks for the comment… just checked out your blog – it’s FANTASTIC!
Kate
I’m so sad, I was there from the beginning but was on the opposite end of the room from the grog! From the careful listing of everything that went into it to the raving reviews from the few that had it, I think that one would have won had it lasted at least 30 minutes.
Mission Gutter Punch sounds awesomely disgusting!
I wish our bookstores would get on board with the drinking!
DC has a neat little bar called Room 11 that does creative takes on classic cocktails. They’ll also do punches every now and then. I love alcoholic punches, but you kind of need to know lots of people in order to make them. Otherwise, it’s just … sad.
Edenmiller – YOU HAVE KRAMERBOOKS!!! Books’ and Booze, right in Dupont Circle.
Oh yeah, that’s true. Kramerbooks is fun. I completely forgot.
If I ever go back to DC I’m definitely going to Room 11.
The Mission Gutter Punch was surprisingly delicious. The bud lite gave it that “Gutter” kick.
why don’t i hear about these things?!?!
yum punch!
Suki, I’ll let you know the nxt time I do something like that. Which is all the time. =)