Do a bit of research, and there’s a case to be made that it’s the perfect drink for Mother’s Day. Or, more accurately, Unfit Mother’s Day.

The modern incarnation of Mother’s Ruin Punch is widely attributed to bartender Phil Ward from New York’s much-loved speakeasy Death & Co. The more belligerent historians among us, however, will argue that folks have been making variations of the cocktail since the 1700s, when gin first began scorching its way across the U.K. Even if those early variations consisted of gin, water, a lime slice, and a lump of frozen coal when ice cubes weren’t readily available.

Londoners were the first to embrace the spirit that eventually became known as Mother’s Ruin. Famously, shops in Hogarth’s Gin Lane would proudly lure customers with signs emblazoned with “drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, clean straw for nothing”. (The straw, by the way, wasn’t for drinking, or polluting the environment; it was for passing out on).

By the mid-1700s there were over 7,000 dram shops in London, with over 10 millions gallons distilled—and guzzled—each year. And by guzzled, we’re talking the average Londoner drinking 14 gallons of gin each year. Which might have had something to do with the death rate exceeding the birth rate in London as gin took hold as the “opium of the people”.

Women were particularly spirited consumers, presenting something of a problem when there was child-rearing to do. As noted on the website historic-uk.com, “Much of the gin was drunk by women: consequently children were neglected, daughters were sold into prostitution, and wet nurses gave gin to babies to quieten them. This worked provided they were given a large enough dose!”

And the horror stories didn’t stop with loaded babies. After strangling her daughter, and selling her clothes for money to buy more gin, Judith Defour was hanged in London in 1734. After carbonation was invented in the 1800s, sugar, bitters, and juice opened up a whole new world, from gimlets and fizzes to proper punches.

But back to Mother’s Day (as opposed to Unfit Mother’s Day).

For those too lazy to track down the recipe for Mother’s Ruin Punch, Vancouver’s Ryan Reynolds has stepped up today with a how-to video. As one might expect, it incorporates plenty of Portland-produced Aviation American Gin, which the A-list actor bought a stake in back in 2018.

The video clip for Mother’s Ruin Punch incorporates Reynolds mother. Who, we might suggest, seems like the best mother ever, even if she spends much of her kitchen time around the punch bowl suggesting her son isn’t mixing things properly. Or paying enough attention to his personal grooming. Or going easy on the Mother’s Ruin....err...Aviation American Gin.

Watch below. And don't forget to get hammered with your mother this Mother's Day.