This festive holiday punch is made with tart pomegranate and lime juice, aged Jamaican rum, simple syrup, and a touch of orange bitters. Just before serving, top it off with your favorite dry sparkling wine, like cava, Prosecco, or champagne. And to make it extra festive, we’ve included instructions on how to make a beautiful pomegranate-and-lime ice block to keep it chilled.

Game plan: You can make the punch base and chill it up to 8 hours ahead. Transfer it to a punch bowl and add the sparkling wine when you’re ready to serve.

  • Yields: 22 drinks
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Total: 15 mins, plus overnight freezing time for the ice block
  • Active: 15 mins

Ingredients (9)

For the ice block:

  • 1/2 medium pomegranate, quartered
  • 1/2 medium lime, thinly sliced
  • Water

For the punch:

  • 1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice (no sugar added)
  • 1 1/2 cups aged Jamaican rum, such as Appleton
  • 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 7 medium limes)
  • 3/4 cup Simple Syrup
  • 1 teaspoon Orange Bitters
  • 2 (750-milliliter) bottles brut sparkling wine or champagne, chilled

Instructions

For the ice block:

  1. The day before serving the punch, place the pomegranate pieces in a small saucepan. Nestle the lime slices between the pomegranate pieces and along the sides of the saucepan. Add enough water to cover the fruit. Place in the freezer until solid.

For the punch:

  1. Combine the pomegranate juice, rum, lime juice, simple syrup, and orange bitters in a 5-cup container. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours.
  2. When ready to serve, transfer the rum mixture to a 3-1/2-quart punch or serving bowl. Gently stir in the sparkling wine (do not overmix or your punch will be flat).
  3. To remove the ice block from the saucepan, dip the pan in hot water or heat it over the flame on a stovetop burner until the ice block releases. Float it in the punch and serve immediately.