One of the first references to Picon Punch is in William Boothby’s 1908 The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them.

Picon Punch cocktail appears in many other vintage cocktail books but with different names. For example, Jacob A. Grohusko’s 1910 Jacks Manual, presents exactly the same recipe named as Queen’s Highball; and in Harry McElhone 1923 ABC of Mixing Drinks, he calls it simply Picon Grenadine.

Following William Boothby’s recipe “Into a punch or highball-glass place a piece of ice and a jigger of Amer Picon; sweeten with about a teaspoonful of grenadine syrup, fill the glass with siphon soda, squeeze some lemon peel over the top, stir thoroughly and serve. Never use lime or lemon juice in this drink.”

Regarding the fact of not using lime or lemon juice, goes against the punch formula of 1 sweet, 2 sour, 3 spice, 4 strong, and 5 weak. Obviously that we can play with the measures but if the formula isn’t complete we can’t really call it “Punch” as William Boothby does.