1. 40 Ounces to Freedom
2. The Rise of the American “Somm”
3. The Art of Drinking Alone
4. Let Us Now Retire the Whiskey Woman
5. When Did Rarity Start to Equal Greatness in Beer?
6. How a Homemade Blend Became One of America's Most Coveted Bourbons
7. Why is the Wine World So Unwoke?
8. JaNee: Where Is She Now?
9. One Ingredient Cocktails for Every Crisis
10. Cocktail Culture Has a Nostalgia Problem
11. Who Orders a Vesper, Anyway?
12. Everyone Loves to Hate the IPA
13. How the Nonalcoholic Negroni Became a Bartender Flex
14. Now Entering the Golden Age of N/A Beer
15. Is Your Tequila Full of Shit?
2. The Rise of the American “Somm”
3. The Art of Drinking Alone
4. Let Us Now Retire the Whiskey Woman
5. When Did Rarity Start to Equal Greatness in Beer?
6. How a Homemade Blend Became One of America's Most Coveted Bourbons
7. Why Is the Wine World So Unwoke?
8. JaNee: Where Is She Now?
9. One-Ingredient Cocktails for Every Crisis
10. Cocktail Culture Has a Nostalgia Problem
11. Who Orders a Vesper, Anyway?
12. Everyone Loves to Hate the IPA
13. How the “Nogroni” Became a Flex
14. Now Entering the Golden Age of N/A Beer
15. Is Your Tequila Full of Shit?
1. 40 Ounces to Freedom
Our most popular stories of the past 10 years.
Punch launched in the fall of 2013, which may as well have been a generation ago. A pandemic hadn’t yet reorganized our relationship to going out, and drinking in; natural wine was still a firebrand, not a duo of words yielding mainstream commercial value; craft beer was tumbling through its more-is-more phase; the Martini was (mostly) well-behaved; every week was Negroni Week.
In the lead-up to launch, I sat at a folding table in my living room, which would serve as Punch’s office for two years, writing the editor’s note for a ’zine we’d print to announce our existence. I tried to capture what I hoped Punch might become. Something rigorous but playful, meaningful, a bit subversive—a media brand that proved drinks possess the same humanity, cultural capital and potential for storytelling as food.
In the 10 years since, the ethos of our early days—the scrappiness, hopeful energy, eccentricity—has never changed. But each person who joined Punch gave it a new sense of purpose and vitality. If we’ve achieved our initial goal, it’s because of our team, our vast network of contributors and our friends in the trade, who invited us behind the scenes and trusted us to tell their stories. What continues below is a collection of our work—a look back at a transformative decade and the sometimes bewildering ways in which drinking culture shapes our lives. There are cats, there are bartender Legos, there are stories about gatekeeping in wine, the queer nightlife renaissance, the cocktail everyone loves to hate. It’s also a thanks to all of you, whether we’ve just met or you’ve been here all along. Stay thirsty, and trust that we will too. —Talia Baiocchi, editor-in-chief
Celebrating a weird, wonderful decade of drinking with you.
Look hard enough on Punch, and you’ll find a collection of oddities—stories that profile the unsung heroes of the distillery (cats!), a calendar of nude French wine harvesters, an unhinged guide to holiday pairings, how to drink in prison. Here are some of our most delightfully weird stories from the past 10 years.
The Secret
Lives of
Distillery Cats
Honestly,
What Is Going on With the Aperol Spritz?
In Tokyo's
“Subcal” Bars, Anything Goes
The 2021
Lego Bartender Collection
Weird Holiday Wine Pairing With Le Pigeon
How the Parmesan Espresso Martini Happened:
A Timeline
Sex, Drugs
and Mojitos:
The Coffee Shop Story
The Coolers of Coney Island
Suburban
New Jersey’s Secret Bar Scene
Inside the Fanatical, International, Extremely Online World of Monster Energy Trading
Who Are the “Wine Jockeys” Pouring Pét-Nat for the
Club Kids?
A Handy Guide
to Drinking
in Prison
Behold a Calendar of Nude French Wine Harvesters
In Tokyo’s “Subcal” Bars,
Anything Goes
read on
Who Are the “Wine Jockeys”
Pouring Pét-Nat for the
Club Kids?
read on
Inside the Fanatical,
International, Extremely Online
World of Monster Energy Trading
read on
Suburban New Jersey’s
Secret Bar Scene
read on
The Coolers of
Coney Island
read on
Sex, Drugs and Mojitos:
The Coffee Shop Story
read on
A Handy Guide to
Drinking in Prison
read on
Weird Holiday Wine Pairing
With Le Pigeon
read on
The 2021 Lego
Bartender Collection
read on
Behold a Calendar
of Nude French
Wine Harvesters
read on
The Secret Lives
of Distillery Cats
read on
How the Parmesan
Espresso Martini Happened:
A Timeline
read on
EST. 2013
Current and former staff share their favorite stories from the past 10 years.
Visit the shop.
Meet the most popular drinks from each of the
past 10 years, from a humble riff on the Whiskey Sour to the perennially viral Pornstar Martini.
2013–2023
Flannel Shirt
Mezcal Mule
Pornstar Martini
Dante's Garibaldi
Piña Colada Milk Punch
Death Flip
E Tonico
Penicillin
Naked & Famous
Poppa's Pride
recipe
Flannel Shirt
Poppa's Pride
recipe
Mezcal Mule
recipe
Pornstar Martini
recipe
Penicillin
recipe
Naked & Famous
recipe
Piña Colada Milk Punch
recipe
Dante's Garibaldi
recipe
Death Flip
recipe
E Tonico
recipe
