Punch and punch bowls have always bored me. All the ones that I've tried have been overly sweet and dull, and besides, punch bowls remind me of high school dances, and who wants to be reminded of high school?

But this Holiday Punch over at Esquire.com looks like something I could get into, even if it does have rum in it (not a big rum guy). It also includes Cognac and tea bags.

Holiday Punch

4 lemons
1 cup demerara sugar or Sugar in the Raw
4 tea bags
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice, strained
2 1/2 cups cognac
1 1/2 cups dark rum
Fresh nutmeg

The day before your punch party, place a 2-quart bowl of water in the freezer.

Using a vegetable peeler, skin 4 lemons, avoiding the white pith, and put the peels in a large heatproof bowl. Add 1 cup demerara sugar or Sugar in the Raw and, using a wooden muddler, mash the sugar and the peels together. This will infuse the sugar with lemon oil.

Bring a quart of water to a boil, remove it from the heat, and add 4 tea bags. (English breakfast works well.). After 5 minutes, remove the tea bags and pour the tea onto the sugar and peels. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add 1 cup fresh-squeezed, strained lemon juice. Add 2 1/2 cups good cognac, such as Pierre Ferrand Ambre or Martell Noblige, and 1 1/2 cups dark, full-bodied rum, such as Coruba or -- even better -- Batavia Arrack van Oosten (a particularly funky Indonesian species of rum that was highly prized back in the day).

Stir well and let cool in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

To serve, pour the punch into an ornamental china bowl, slip in your block of ice, grate fresh nutmeg over the top, and dish the nectar forth with your silver punch ladle (bought on credit, naturally).