My girlfriend’s father and sister are visiting from France and I was extremely excited to visit with them! I mean, when one of your best girl’s family travels over land and sea, you’ve gotta celebrate, right? Right! We started with a fantastic day at the beach where we went to beat the heat that was scorching our neck of the woods. Couple that heat with the looming smoke of the devastating Sand Fire and you can see why escaping to the beach wasn’t just a figure of speech! Once we had gotten our full of sand and sun, we returned collectively to my house where I ordered pizza and served this punch on my patio. This was a fantastic day and I am looking forward to my next visit with the fantastic Xavier, his lovely and charming daughter Aurèa and of course my true blue Bathsheba and brood! I have promised a spread of comfort food dishes with a nod to southern cuisine and it will be full fat, buttery goodness for sure! For now, I’ll share this rum punch just in time for the weekend. Since we were three I made a pitcher of punch that perfectly served six beverages.

You will need the following:

• Dark rum, I used Zaya which is phenomenal but Meyers or another brand would work fine. Skip the spiced rums like Sailor Jerry or Captain Morgan’s for this application. You want rich deep Amber colored dark rum.
• Cointreau, you can use Grand Marnier if you like.
• Orange juice
• The juice of two limes 
• Grenadine 
• Maraschino cherries
• Coconut flavored seltzer water. Le Croix makes this and is available at target and other grocerie store chains. I’ve seen coconut in off brands as well. If you can’t find this, lemon/lime seltzer would be good too.

Directions:

1. In a medium sized pitcher, add 9 shots of rum, 3 shots of Cointreau, orange and lime juice and stir.
2. Pour over ice about 2/3 full and top with the coconut seltzer. 
3. Add a float of grenadine and garnish with two cherries.

This drink SCREAMS summer! Do it today and be refreshed! Swearing Mom out.