Drinks · England

Clarified milk punch

Also Milk punch, English milk punch

A punch poured into milk, left to curdle and strained clear: silky, glass-bright, and stable for weeks.

What makes it clarified milk punch

  • About 4 parts punch to 1 part whole milk — some bars go to 5 : 1
  • The punch poured slowly into the milk, not the other way round: the milk's acidity drops gradually and it curdles evenly
  • Rested, then strained through a coffee filter, the first cloudy run poured back through the bed of curds

Where it comes from

Milk punch is an eighteenth-century English way of keeping punch. As the milk curdles, its curds pull out tannin and haze, and what drains away is clear, smooth and long-lasting. Recipes survive from the 1700s; Benjamin Franklin's is the one most often quoted.

Modern bars have made it a showcase — Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City built one of its best-known drinks on a clarified mezcal milk punch.

How it varies

Once Upon a Time in Oaxaca
Handshake Speakeasy's: a clarified mezcal milk punch with mint infused for hours and a touch of absinthe.

Versions here

Make your own clarified milk punch
2 versions
v6Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineappleRosa Ibarra · v6Lime juice, not lemon juice · With mezcal · With pineapple juice · +4v3Milk punch, with hojichaKenji Hara · v3Lime juice, not lemon juice · With mezcal · With pineapple juice · +4↳ made their own from Rosa Ibarra's v6

Near it

The cocktail barVodka y SodaA vodka soda with everything done to it: chilli-infused vodka, clarified guava, its own acids, force-carbonated, a guava-salt rim.No one here has made it yetThe cocktail barDaiquiriWhite rum, lime and sugar, shaken hard: the benchmark sour, and the drink a bartender is most often judged by.No one here has made it yet