British sailors of the 1700's were very fond of an East Indian concoction. The East Indian recipe was made from 5 ingredients. These 5 were arrack (mostly fermented palm sap), tea or spices, sugar, water, and lemons. The term Punch comes form the Hindi word 'panch' which means 'five'.They sailors then spread the punch recipe to seaport taverns like bees spread pollen. There, the original punch recipe was merged with the local fruits, and many came to consider themselves 'master punch brewers'. The result was a slew of party punch recipes as colorfully named as any English tavern. Dragoon, Bombay, Fish House and Artillery are a few still popular. The famous Fish House Punch recipe is actually credited by some, not to a British pub, but to a fishing and social club in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania.