But i must confess, I'm drinking a gin and tonic

This really is a good recipe. I probably put more into the reciting of it that strictly necessary. But try it. From Tuesday July 18, 2006

Just to prove how much you, my MySpace friends, are in fact my real friends, I am now sharing our rum punch recipe. Well, like all good recipes, it's not so much a recipe as it is a bunch of accidents that resulted in what we do now, but the original recipe came from a book called "Rum and Reggae, the Insider's Guide to the Caribbean." It's a good book, if a little dated now (among the items it says you need to take with you on your Caribbean trip is a "Walkman" and "tapes"). There are more recent editions. Check them out if you're planning an island trek.
Here's the list verbatim, then I'll add some of the changes we've made over the years.
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2-3 oz good dark rum (the stronger, the better)
2 oz sugar syrup*
1 lime
4 oz water
bitters
feresh grated nutmeg
ice

directions
Squeeze the lime and add the juice to the rum and sugar syrup. Shake the bitters into the glass four times. Add the rocks, then sprinkle with fresh, grated nutmeg (it mut be fresh!). Yum! Serves one.

*To make sugar syrup, dissolve 1 lb. of sugar in 2 cups of water. Keep handy for quick and easy rum punches.
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Doubtless, that makes a good drink. But we've made some changes to it over the years, and the result is our rum punch.
First, sugar water. I don't know what a pound of sugar mixed with 2 cups of water gives you, but it sounds like a toothache. We boil 2 parts tap water, then mix in 1 part sugar, stir til dissolved. Put it in the fridge and get it chilly. For this, let's say 2 cups water with one cup sugar.
Then, squeeze limes. This is an eyeball process (eww, sounds painful) in that you squeeze until you figure you have enough. If limes are ten for a dollar, it usually means ten. If they're eight for a dollar, that's probably enough.
You pour the juice into a pitcher with the sugar water. Since you probably squeezed while the water was boiling, it's likely not cold yet. No big deal.
Then you add rum. We use spiced rum, dark, and from the bottom shelf. Don't be a sucker. If you're mixing it, use the cheap stuff. It'll kill you at just the same rate as the good stuff, and if you mix it right, you're not going to taste it anyway. I try to make it equal to the sugar water, but I never measure the sugar water, so I'm not really sure what that comes out to. Two cups of water, one cup of sugar? Three cups of rum. Make sense to you? Does to me. This is concentrated punch, don't drink this. Or you'll be finishing your party very early. Patience, we're almost there.
Now, on to glassware. Don't think this is not important. A tiki mug is essential. Really. You'll just feel bad about yourself later if you don't. If you don't have tiki, sure, go with something else. But make it fun. Jelly glasses. Something with cartoon characters on them. Go wild. But preferably something with a tiki god or a girl in a grass skirt.
Fill it with ice (especially if the now-concentrated rum punch is still warm). Measure out a heaping helping of the concentrate. Depends on the size of your glass and the fortitude of your liver. Say a half-cup. Or a big shotglass. Or maybe a hollowed-out coconut half. You be the judge. Pour it over the ice.
Then get your sparkle water. Did I mention sparkle water? Club soda's fine. Seltzer's better. Perrier will do in a pinch, but again, go for the cheap stuff. Tonic water is a no-go. Avoid any of the heavily flavored soda that has any variety of sugar and/or aspartame in it. You're drinking fermented sugar cane with sugar and lime in it. You got plenty of sweet, and you got plenty of flavor. If you try anything that says "diet" before it, you really shouldn't be reading this. Pour the same amount of sparkle water in as you did punch concentrate.
Please, please, PLEASE don't neglect fresh-grated nutmeg and bitters. Buy a little grater and keep it with your nutmegs, it's so worth it. And the bitters might not seem like much, but it makes the drink. Grate on some of the first, sprinkle on some of the second.
Garnish. I suggest having little plastic monkeys or mermaids or flamingos around. No house is a home without them. But paper umbrellas are a crowd pleaser, no shame in using those. A nice swizzle stick is good to have, mix the nutmeg and bitters in.
Enjoy in moderation. I don't just add that as a bit of CYA correctness, either. This stuff goes down really fast, barely tastes like booze at all. But it is strong. I've seen grown men become incapacitated on two. And because it is so deceptive, you might go through three or four of them in rapid succession before you notice how utterly and completely polluted you are. So be careful.
Here, I'll put the ingredients list down for you, in case you need to go to the store.
Rum
Limes
Sugar
Tap water
Sparkle water
Ice
Bitters
Real, whole nutmeg
A little grater
Tiki glasses
Decorations there-for