Patriot's Punch Bowl

Independence Day is next weekend. There will be parades, fireworks, friends and family in the back yard, hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, and maybe even an adult beverage or two. While you’re planning out your menu for the Fourth of July backyard barbeque you’ll likely get stuck on the question of how to spice up the children’s beverage selection? Let’s head over to Liberty Tree Tavern for a suggestion.

Sitting in the shadow of the Liberty Tree herself, the Liberty Tree Tavern has always had a specialty drink fit for the pint-sized patriotic sippers, or those just looking to try something a bit different than the usual Magic Kingdom beverage selection. The current version is known as Patriot’s Punch and mixes a couple of citrus flavors together, but let’s go a bit further back. For our homemade brew from the Liberty Tree Tavern, we’ve ventured down the Freedom Trail back to when I was a kid and I couldn’t wait to order the Tavern Lemon Sherbet Punch.

It is as simple to put together as the name suggests, so let’s dig in to the recipe!

TAVERN LEMON SHERBET PUNCH

Ingredients

Juice from 4 Lemons

2 Quarts Club Soda

2 Quarts Lemon Sherbet

Strawberries

Directions

Place lemon juice, club soda, and lemon sherbet in a blender and blend until smooth.

Serve over ice.

Garnish with fresh strawberries.

Like I said, simple right?

I do have a couple of notes from the preparation. First off, this will make a gallon punch. I attempted a half batch, but even that was a stretch to fit in my blender. It also starts separating fairly quickly. With those two things in mind, I would recommend making this in quarter batches and serving as needed.

Otherwise this was an easy and straightforward preparation that took mere minutes to complete. With appropriate supervision you could even let the kids take part in putting it all together. Juicing the lemons, measuring out ingredients, and getting to push the magic blending button (only after they’ve been told to) are all easy ways to give kids a sense of accomplishment and it’ll even make the drink taste better to them!

On the taste note, it really is delicious. It isn’t nearly as sweet as you would think a punch would be. It comes across as more of a frosted lemonade that is a little bitter with a touch of sweetness. The strawberries add some nice accent color, texture, and vary up the flavors just a bit.

The punch would cut through the saltiness of potato chips and hot dogs easily, and will definitely leave patriots young and old asking for seconds. I hope you take a few minutes to throw together a batch of the Tavern Lemon Sherbet Punch. It’s a blast from the Liberty Tree Tavern's past, in the best way possible!