A Bowle is the German version of punch.

It is extremely versatile; you can make it boozy or not, sweet or not too sweet, and use an array of seasonal fruits.

Susannah Müller has numerous variations in her cooking and domestic advice book from 1860 Das Fleissige Hausmütterchen (the industrious little housewife), including pineapple, apricot, peach, orange, raspberry and the popular (at the time) Maitrank or Waldmeisterbowle, which uses fragrant wild Waldmeister (sweet woodruff) to flavour the punch.

(According to Wikipedia, Waldmeister is low-level toxic and was partially banned in 1974. Much of the flavouring in products today is achieved artificially, especially the ones geared towards children, like candy and soft drinks).

Beloved Swiss school textbook Tiptopf has a recipe for a choose-your-own-fruit Früchtebowle with apple juice, Switzerland’s favourite forager Chrüter Oski has a version in his Die Natur im Kochtopf, and the timeless Elisabeth Fülscher uses a bottle of Champagne in one of her variations. Cin-cin!

(Even my own drinks book Drink like the Swiss, has a recipe for an apricot Bowle that features a sneaky shot of Abricotine, apricot brandy from the Valais.)

I made a boozy version for the grown-ups (which I strained before serving), and I used Rimuss (non-alcoholic sparkling wine) for the kids, and served their fruit-filled glasses with spoons to scoop up the fruit.

300 g strawberries, sliced

50 ml elderflower syrup

juice of one lemon

1 bunch mint, roughly chopped

1 bottle white wine or sparkling wine

Place the strawberries and mint in a large pitcher. Add the lemon juice and elderflower syrup and stir together. Let sit for about an hour.

Pour in the wine, cover, and let sit in the fridge for another hour.

To serve, either carefully pour or ladle into glasses, or you can strain out the drink and serve the fruit on the side.

• I like to start with about 50 ml of elderflower syrup, you can always add more if you find it not quite sweet enough.

• For a non-alcoholic version, leave out the wine and instead add about 750 ml of sparkling water (adding more elderflower syrup to taste), or omit the elderflower syrup all together and add 750 ml of non-alcoholic wine like Rimuss, or a not too sweet white grape juice.