Near the end of the 19th century, two Chicago bartenders created a new drink for a seaside New England summer soirée.

Williams & Newman was among the most respected saloons of Gilded Age Chicago. Lewis Williams was a keen business mind, Tom Newman was a renowned mixologist, and both were described as classy, well-dressed fellows who catered to the very best. Located in the central business district since 1885, they specialized in fancy mixed drinks and also engaged in the wholesale liquor trade, even bottling their own brand of bourbon whiskey and premixed Old Fashioned cocktails.

One summer in the late-1890s, Williams was invited by his long-time friend, the famous stage actor William H. Crane, to his seaside estate in Cohasset, Massachusetts. During his visit, Williams overheard Crane’s other guests discussing the superior quality of New England’s rum punches. He immediately wired Tom Newman in Chicago, and asked him for a new rum drink that would surpass all others to impress the group. Within 24 hours, Newman put a cask of a new concoction on a railcar bound for Cohasset. On its arrival, Crane’s guests were delighted with the new drink—a blend of rum, wine, and other ingredients Newman kept secret.

When Williams returned to Chicago, he and Newman began mixing the “Cohasset Punch” at their bar, each drink served over a brandy-soaked peach slice. By 1899, they were bottling Cohasset Punch for distribution, with an illustration of Cohasset’s famous Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse on each label. Cohasset Punch quickly became so popular in its city of origin that a leading liquor industry journal wrote in 1902 that “what the mint julep is to the South, Cohasset Punch is to Chicago.”

Lewis Williams and Tom Newman both retired in 1916, but Cohasset Punch continued to be made by German-born saloonkeeper Carl Ladner. Carl had recently opened a Chicago branch of “Ladner Bros.”—the bar and wholesale business he started with his brother Frank in Red Wing, Minnesota. Like Williams and Newman, Ladner sold Cohasset Punch both bottled for distribution and by the glass at his bar. After Prohibition, Carl’s son John reopened Ladner Bros. in the same location, and hung a large neon sign outside touting “The Home of Cohasset Punch.” During the 1930s and ‘40s, Cohasset Punch was found on the menus of Chicago’s swanky nightclubs and luxurious long-distance passenger trains.

This unique liqueur enjoyed a devoted following for decades, but in 1986 the Ladner Bros. building was sold and demolished for real estate development, and bottling was halted a short time after. The heyday of Cohasset Punch became only a memory, and the old trademark expired, never formally renewed. Though for years no one had tasted it, Cohasset Punch continued to be a source of curiosity for many regarding it the classic Chicago drink.

Now, after nearly four decades, this storied liqueur brand has been revived and is now rolling out in the Chicagoland area, with additional states and online ordering launching soon. Sign up for email updates below to know when Cohasset Punch becomes available in your area.