so cocktails these days are all about the ingredients in the drink excellent cocktails can be made from nothing but excellent ingredients and just because a punch is a large-scale cocktail it doesn't mean that you shouldn't give it as much attention as an individual serve while bay spirits are important so are the produce that we mix them with I found some wonderful figs at the farmers market which inspired me to use other big sabers for this punch you get to use all of the fig so first I'll wash them then I can actually muddle the whole of the fig with the skin art will pair that with some fresh orange juice and fresh lemon juice top off with the spiced rum and I'm also going to use a bourbon once all the ingredients are combined we'll add some ice and we want to give that a good stir so it starts to just dilute a little and mellow down the ingredients so here we have another figure inspired punch but in contrast to the last this is a little lighter and more refreshing at the base of every punch is some sugar and citrus so first I'm going to muddle the peels of some local navel oranges in some white sugar the figs will be used to actually infuse a syrup it's a tea based syrup we'll add some sugar and then infuse that with those wonderful fresh figs now this takes a little bit longer but it's well worth the wait and as a base for this punch we're going to use two types of flavored vodka the Stoli white palm and then also the blueberry vodka and as a final touch will add some sparkling wine leaving this punch really quite light and delicate presentation for this punch is really important and you can have some fun with it using fresh produce in punches as garnish or to leave in the punch bowl to marinate keep that nice balance of flavor even right through to the garnish punches are perfect for when you're throwing a cocktail party at home you can prepare a large batch of punch in advance and then sit back and enjoy it with your guests rather than being stuck in the kitchen throughout the party you