by Clyde Starr

Created on: April 03, 2009   Last Updated: April 04, 2009

Keeping hot food and drink hot and cold food and drink cold is one of the biggest challenges that any host or caterer has to face. One of the major concerns in this respect is a blended drink like a punch.

When dealing with mixed drinks, most of the standard cooling agents have the negative side-effect of diluting the flavors of the punch that you worked so hard to balance out. This has the affect of having the punch hit strong in the beginning, then as the party goes on, its flavor dampens. Anyone who knows about the human sense of taste knows that you tend already to naturally become used to a flavor as you drink something. This being the case, diluting something as you goes along packs twice to three times the disappointment into the situation.

Excellent techniques on maintaining the flavor of your creations, or even accenting them as the party goes on are really quite basic and easy to embrace.

1. When serving cold drinks, try to use either glass or metal punch bowls, which you have pre-cooled before adding your punch. Both metal and glass hold temperature a lot longer than plastic and other substances and thus keep the punch cooler longer, without any loss of overall flavor. Glass and metal punch bowls will also help out with tip #2;

2. Place your punch bowl in a larger bowl or container filled with ice, or better yet, an ice bath. This acts as a cooling table or portable refrigeration unit for your beverage of choice allowing your guests to enjoy it at full potency and pleasant temperature for a lot longer.

3. The day before the event, take a slightly stronger version of your punch, maybe 25% stronger, and freeze this in ice cube trays. Regular trays are fine, but decorative or themed shapes work as well. If you really want to get creative, food coloring can be added to these cubes so they don't quite match the original punch and if swirled properly can even give it a tie-dye kind of effect. During the party, float several of these concentrated cubes in the punch bowl. As they dissolve, instead of weakening your hard brewed concoction spilling over taste buds already becoming resistant to the flavor, your cubes are infusing the entire bowl with stronger flavor throughout the melting process. Not strong enough generally to overwhelm, but enough to enhance the taste and counteract the diminished return on flavor that happens from extended exposure to any taste or sensation. This can also be accomplished by adding frozen pieces of the fruits that you used to

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