BELAZU Pomegranate Molasses (250ML)
$29.95
Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.
By Jodie Smith, Product & Hamper Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.
A Christmas punch for twelve: 1.5L chilled pomegranate juice, 1L apple juice, the juice of three lemons, a tablespoon of pomegranate molasses, and rosewater added half a teaspoon at a time until it smells of roses. Top with soda water at the table.
Serves 12, prep 15 minutes, no cooking, and the base can be mixed the day before. Nothing in the bowl contains alcohol.
Two teaspoons, not two splashes
Rosewater is a distillate, so it works on the nose rather than the tongue, and aroma is the thing that tips from lovely to soapy without warning. Pariya Rosewater comes in a 110ml bottle at $12.95, which is about 22 teaspoons. A punch for twelve uses two of them at the most. That is the whole reason most rosewater drinks fail: the bottle is small, so it gets treated like cordial and poured.
Work in half teaspoons, stir, then smell the bowl instead of tasting it. Your nose registers rose long before your tongue does, so by the time the punch tastes of rose it has gone past the point where anyone wants to finish a glass. Mix it into cold juice as well, not room temperature juice, because cold mutes aroma and you want an honest reading of what will actually reach the table.
Keep 250ml of the pomegranate juice back in the bottle as insurance. If you do overshoot, dilution is the only repair, and reserved juice fixes it faster than a trip to the shops. The rest of the range, including the orange blossom water and the dried petals, sits on the Pariya page.
The molasses is what stops it tasting like cordial
Bottled pomegranate juice is sweet with very little acid behind it, and sweet juice plus soda water is a soft drink with fruit in the name. Belazu Pomegranate Molasses is pomegranate cooked down until it reads sour first and sweet second, and one tablespoon in the bowl does two jobs: it puts an edge under the sweetness for the rose to sit on, and it drags the colour from pink towards garnet.
One tablespoon is all it takes. The 250ml bottle is $29.95 and holds roughly sixteen tablespoons, so a punch uses about a sixteenth of it and the rest goes on roast vegetables and lamb through summer. It is the dearest thing in this recipe and the smallest measure in it, which is usually a sign a bottle is doing its job. The pastes and vinegars beside it are on the Belazu shelf.
Method
Method
- Chill the pomegranate juice, the apple juice and the soda water for at least four hours.
- Juice the lemons and strain the juice to catch the pips.
- Stir the caster sugar into 60ml of hot water until it clears and leave it to cool, if you are using it.
- Pour 1.25L of the pomegranate juice into a large bowl, leaving 250ml in the bottle for later.
- Add the apple juice and the lemon juice and stir.
- Spoon in the pomegranate molasses and stir until no dark threads sit on the bottom.
- Taste the base. Add the sugar syrup only if the lemons have pulled it too far towards sour.
- Add one teaspoon of rosewater, stir once, then smell the bowl rather than tasting it.
- Add half a teaspoon more if the rose is still hiding, and stop the moment it arrives.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for at least an hour, or up to a day.
- Cut the pomegranate in half and knock the seeds out with a wooden spoon.
- Pour the cold soda water into the base just before people arrive at the table.
- Add the ice in one go, since a full tray melts far more slowly than cubes dropped in over an hour.
- Scatter the seeds and lemon slices, tuck in the mint sprigs, and float the rose petals last.
- Taste one glass. Top up with reserved juice if the rose is loud, or add the last half teaspoon if cold has flattened it.
- Serve with the fairy floss and a small plate beside the bowl.
Make it the day before
The base keeps a day in the fridge, covered, and rests better as the molasses and lemon settle in. Leave out the soda water, the ice and every garnish until it is served. Punch built early arrives flat and watery.
Two things shift overnight. Rose fades, so hold that last half teaspoon back and judge it cold on the day. Cold also blunts sourness, so a base that tasted balanced on the bench reads sweeter from the fridge, and a squeeze of lemon fixes it.
Decant it if it goes outside. Glass near a pool is a poor idea and a full bowl is heavy, so the Royal Ascot acrylic pitcher at $39.95 earns its place, with matching tumblers at $7.95. They read as cut crystal from a metre away and bounce when dropped.
Questions we get asked
How much rosewater do you put in a drink?
About half a teaspoon per litre of finished drink, and less if you are unsure. This punch takes one and a half to two teaspoons across roughly 3.6 litres. Add it half a teaspoon at a time into cold liquid, stirring and smelling between additions, and stop where the rose is clearly there but not the first thing you notice. There is no way to take it out again, which is why the reserved juice stays in the bottle until the bowl is finished.
Can you make punch the day before?
The base yes, the finished punch no. Mix the juices, lemon, molasses and rosewater up to 24 hours ahead and keep it covered in the fridge. Soda water added early goes flat, early ice waters the bowl down, and petals sink and go limp, so all three wait for the table. Assembly takes fifteen minutes.
What is a good non alcoholic Christmas punch?
One built on real juice with something sour and something aromatic in it, rather than lemonade with fruit on top. The working shape is two parts fruit juice, one part something sharp, one part soda water added late, and a scented note in teaspoons. Allow about 300ml a head for the first hour and half that for each hour after.
Can I use orange blossom water instead?
Yes, at the same dose. Pariya orange blossom water is the same 110ml size at $12.95 and reads as citrus blossom rather than rose, which suits a white grape and lime version better. Using both at once is the common mistake: they fight, and the bowl smells like a candle shop.
The rosewater, petals and fairy floss all sit in the Pariya range, with shipping free Australia-wide on orders over $100. For what to put out beside the bowl, our Christmas drinks board and the guide to Christmas party food for twenty cover the savoury end. If the whole table is off the drink, the non-alcoholic hampers are built on the same thinking, and the Christmas hampers take the shopping off your hands entirely.
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