Boilo is an alcoholic punch that is an iconic staple for many Coal Region families at Christmastime. The variations are potentially endless, but here are the basics: A mix of spices, fruits, and honey, boiled with whiskey or other alcohol and served hot.
Courtesy Coal Country Boilo
Hot holiday beverage with Eastern European roots inspired an entrepreneur
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Taste is important for Boilo conoisseurs, but festive presentation can add to the cooking experience. Coal Country Boilo founder Amy Dougherty encourages first-timers to experiment and have fun preparing the drink.
Courtesy Coal Country Boilo
Citrus fruits are a common ingredient in most traditional Boilo recipes, but not all.
Courtesy Coal Country Boilo
Coal Country Boilo founder Amy Dougherty notes that while Boilo has many devoted fans, even some people in the Anthracite Region haven’t heard of it.
Courtesy Coal Country Boilo
Coal Country Boilo offers this explanation of what the drink is.
Courtesy Coal Country Boilo
What is Boilo?
Some of you will read that and be shocked anyone even asked the question.
For those who don’t know, it’s an alcoholic punch that is an iconic staple for many Coal Region families at Christmastime, steeped in the lore of Eastern European immigrant ancestors who brought it over here decades ago. Many sources tie its origins to Krupnik, a spiced honey liqueur popular in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania.
But Boilo also is a distinctively Pennsylvanian tradition, embellished and adapted to the tastes of families over the years, many of whom are fiercely proud of their individual recipes.
The variations are potentially endless, but here are the basics: A mix of spices, fruits, and honey, boiled with whiskey or other alcohol and served hot.
As for the geography, some qualifications are in order. Boilo is indeed a Coal Region tradition, but specifically an Anthracite Region favorite — sorry, Western Pennsylvania — and even then, it seems to be more common in the southern coalfields than, say, north of Hazleton.
But that shouldn’t stop anyone from savoring this powerful punch for themselves, wherever they live.
It didn’t stop Amy Dougherty, a Philadelphia native and transplant to Schuylkill County who is the owner and founder of Coal Country Boilo, a business that sells traditional Boilo spice mixes along with recipe books.
We spoke with Dougherty about her business and her passion for the history and culture surrounding Boilo. That interview follows below.
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Q: How did you become interested in Boilo and start the business?
A: So, I’m actually not from the coal region. I came up in 2002 from Philadelphia. I was young, I worked in bars and I heard people talk about Boilo and no one would really tell me what it was. But I could tell it was an important thing. Everyone seemed to love this stuff.
Q: Who finally gave away the secret?
A: One day an older woman, a regular at the bar, said she was going home early, and she was going to make her husband some Boilo because he wasn’t feeling well. And I said, “What is this stuff? No one will tell me what it is. Why are you making it for your husband if he doesn’t feel well?”
She said, “Oh, you know, it’s like whiskey and honey, and it’s got fruit in it and it’s spicy.”
I was like, “well, that sounds kind of good, I’d like to try to make that.”
And she responds, “You can’t. You have to be gifted Boilo. That’s the tradition.”
And I’m like, “look, lady, I’m from Philadelphia. As soon as I open my mouth and speak, no one wants to talk to me, let alone give me Boilo.”
Q: Ha! Good point! What did she say?
A: “You’re right.” She takes a piece of paper and she writes a list of ingredients down, and she says, “figure it out.”
Q: Did you?
A: I went home and I made a couple of batches, and they were awful. And every time I’d bring her in a little bit and let her taste it and she’d just grimace and be like, “oh, no,” and hand it back to me.
Q: But you kept at it?
A: Yes. One day I gave her some and she took a sip and she took another sip and another sip, and she looked at me and she kind of rolled her eyes and she goes, “it’s okay.”
And then she took the jar and finished it. That’s how I started making Boilo.
Q: That’s excellent! How and when did it ultimately translate into a business for you?
A: About nine years ago I was very active with our local library and we were doing some fundraising for the holidays. I said, “What about doing a Boilo sale?” They were like, “We can’t sell Boilo!”
I asked them to hear me out. I had talked to a lot of people and had tried to learn about this stuff. I suggested we start talking to more people and put together a spice packet that people can use to make their own Boilo, together with a couple different recipies from around the Coal Region.
Q: And you won them over?
A: They were like, “Well, that sounds kind of cool.” So I started talking to everyone who would talk to me about their recipe.
Q: What did you learn?
A: We gathered all of these different stories — because it’s not just a recipe, it’s a story about where these families came from, how they got to the coal region, what they did when they got there, and what their roles were.
So what we did when we actually developed this for our fundraiser was we provided five different recipes. And we wrote the story of Boilo.
We had moonshiners and we had boilermakers, and we had people that worked in the mines. We had people that worked in the factories, all kinds of stories.
And, you know, I started to really see some common threads between them, but I also started to see some differences between the Polish backgrounds and the Lithuanian backgrounds and a lot of things like that.
Q: How did the fundraiser do?
A: The first year we sold like 30 packs of Boilo. The next year we sold 80 packs. And the year after that, we sold like 140 packs of Boilo. And then that’s when I started to go into stores. And it just blew up from there. It’s been a blessing. I never would’ve dreamt that it would be what it is now.
And it continues to grow. So at this point, we’re in twenty-some different locations. I work with quite a few historical organizations doing historical preservation and education about the Coal Region, and this year we are one of the major sponsors of the Carbon County Krampus festival.
Q: Boilo seems to be a holiday tradition. Are you a year-round business?
A: We do a three-month sale, but I work at this all year long. I produce thousands of packages of Boilo throughout the year, and we have a commercial kitchen.
We start (selling) in the beginning of September, which is when I start to get everything on the shelves. We really push October through December. It usually sells out pretty quickly after Christmas, if it’s not already sold out by Christmas.
Q: How do you distribute it the product?
A: We sell wholesale to a variety of different gift shops, boutique shops and grocery stores. We have some in the Poconos, Bucks County, Berks County, Lehigh County, we’re over in Carbon County.
Q: Boilo seems to be known in the southern part of the Anthracite Region, but perhaps less so here in the Wilkes-Barre area and northern Luzerne County. Have you noticed that?
A: I do a lot of sales out of Jim Thorpe, I do tastings in Jim Thorpe. We’ll get people who say “I’m from the Coal Region, but I’ve never heard this.” They’ll tell me where they’re from, and sometimes I’ll tell them “you’re 20 minutes up the road. You’re too far away.”
Q: A lot of people in our area do like to visit Jim Thorpe! If they’re looking to buy your product up here, how can they find it?
A: They can visit coalcountryboilo.com. It has a list of retailers and a link to our Etsy shop.
Q: You also have the history and recipes on the website, right?
A: We have a traditional recipe on the package, but there’s a little link at the bottom where you can go to the website or scan a QR code. It takes you right to a download on the website that still has those five recipes as a free download. There also is a cookbook that you can purchase, and that has about 25 different recipes that are non-traditional.
Q: That reminds me: What do you recommend for alcohol?
A: OK, so traditionally it is something called Four Queens whiskey. People joke that Schuylkill County keeps Four Queens in business. (Editor’s Note: Four Queens is distributed by New Jersey-based Laird & Company.)
But yeah, Four Queens is the tradition, or moonshine. Some people use Everclear. I have a lot of people who ask me what they should use in it. And ultimately I tell ’em, use what you like. If you don’t like whiskey or you don’t like whatever, don’t use it, because you’re not going to like the final product. Use what you enjoy. Boilo is supposed to be something that tastes good.
Q: And what are the best fruits to use?
I would say it depends. Traditionally you’re looking at lemons, oranges, raisins. A lot of people will put things like apples or slices of fresh ginger in it. I’ve heard of people putting anything from blueberries to pineapple in it. I do a peach bourbon Boilo at the end of the summer when the nights are first getting cold.
Q: How well does that go over?
A: It’s something I just make for friends. But they always ask, “are you bringing that peach bourbon?” And I’m like, “yeah, I’ll bring it.”
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Coal Country Boilo
Email: Boiloqueen@gmail.com
