Ti’ Punch

Not wrong, just not the default. Ask for one avec glaçon and you get a single cube. Served neat, the rum's grassy, briny side comes through undiluted, and the pour is small enough that it never has time to warm up. Ice softens it and stretches it out.

For the traditional version, yes. Agricole is distilled from fresh cane juice rather than molasses, and its vegetal, almost olive-like character is the whole flavor. A molasses rum makes a pleasant drink but a sweeter, rounder one, closer to a small rum old fashioned than to this.

Cane syrup dissolves instantly and brings a faint grassy sweetness of its own, which is why it is standard. Granulated sugar needs muddling into the lime for a good half minute before the rum goes in, or it sits at the bottom. Demerara works and changes the drink.

As a coin: a disc of peel with a thin layer of flesh still on it, cut from the side of the fruit. Squeeze it over the glass and drop it in. You want the oil from the skin as much as the juice, and only a few milliliters of juice at that.

A classic Ti’ Punch calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Aged rum, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Fresh lime juice, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Simple syrup. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Ti’ Punch is roughly 32% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.

A Ti’ Punch is stirred, not shaken. It contains no citrus juice, so stirring keeps it crystal clear and silky instead of cloudy and aerated.