I remembered seeing one on allrecipes.com that sounds like one a friend used to make:
Hot Spiked Cider
1 quart water
3 orange spice tea bags
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 cups apple cider
1 1/2 cups light rum
8 cinnamon sticks
3 teaspoons butter
1 Pour water into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and toss in the orange spice tea bags. Cover and let steep 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and stir in sugar, apple cider, rum, and 2 of the cinnamon sticks. Heat just to steaming -- do not boil.
2 Ladle hot cider into 6 mugs and drop 1/2 teaspoon butter into each. Garnish with a cinnamon "swizzle" stick.
Serves 6.
The problem with most cider recipes is that they are served hot - and I don't know if they will best display your punch bowl.
You might do better with cranberry juice as the base if you want to serve it cold.
CRANBERRY RUM PUNCH
1 (32 fluid ounce) bottle cranberry juice
1/4 cup white sugar
2 cups ginger ale
2 1/4 cups rum
8 slices lemon
1 In a medium-size punchbowl, stir cranberry juice and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. Mix in ginger ale, rum, and lemon and lime slices. Serve over ice.
**Actually, this one sounds good to me. I'll be you could substitute cider for the apple juice.
MULLED APPLE CHAMPAGNE PUNCH
3 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
3 quarts Chablis wine
1 (750 milliliter) bottle dry champagne, chilled
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks
1 orange, sliced into rounds
1 (4 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained
1. In a saucepan, combine pumpkin pie spice and orange zest to apple juice concentrate. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. In a large pitcher, combine spiced apple juice concentrate and white wine. Chill in refrigerator overnight.
2. Strain the wine mixture through a coffee filter, being careful not to disturb the spices which have settled to the bottom of the pitcher.
3. Just before serving, slide in the ice ring. Slowly pour the champagne down the side of the bowl to retain as much carbonization as possible.
4. To make Ice Ring: In a ring shaped mold, combine pineapple chunks, orange slices and maraschino cherries. Pour in just enough water to hold the fruit together in the ring. freeze overnight.
