A matter of taste | Milking the goodness

Explore the evolution of milk in drinks, from classic punches to modern alternatives, in a nostalgic and informative journey.

The word milk, for me, has two recurring visuals, both quite prominent and unforgettable. One is of the words, “Got Milk?” which was an American advertising campaign from 1993 which was created to promote the consumption of milk. Yes, those were the good ol’ days when man was satisfied drinking milk that came from natural sources. 

My other visual, while completely placid, is a bit jarring in the context it was portrayed – The Korova Milkbar in the movie Clockwork Orange. I can never forget the way the camera shows Alex and his crew sitting calmly and sipping milk (okay, drugged milk) from bottles. It’s eerily normalized a depiction and the scurrility of that entire visual setting is always disturbing.

More locally, milk reminds me of my childhood, the never-ending struggle of having to drink it hot, which made it taste quite awful. I much preferred the cool version but was not allowed to drink it so.

More recently, milk reminds me of bars which serve clarified punches where milk was used as a flavour carrier before being coagulated and separated out as whey. How the times change. But milk-based punches aren’t exactly new; in fact, many historians even believe that they pre-date the term cocktails, as we perceive it today.

It wasn’t uncommon for arrack and other local distillate based drinks being mixed with milk to soften their astringence. Even beer and wine were mixed with milk as far back as in 17th century England, and the curdled milk drinks didn’t only last longer on shelves but were also considered excellent for gut health. Even Thomas Jefferson drank Cognac mixed with boiled milk to which lemon juice had been added and the resulting glop had been finely sieved to yield a thin but flavourful and gentle elixir.

The classic punch recipe was a mix of spirit, sugar, spices, acid (or citrus) and sugar. Adding milk to this would curdle the proteins and make them easy to separate. This would also remove a lot of other components from the drink, small solid particles, some even as fine as anthocyanins which are responsible for colour in a drink. This explains why clarified drinks look so wraith-like translucent. Of course citrus is an indispensable in clarified milk punches.

But there are other alcoholic drinks (many are still called punches but not the clarified kind) with milk but no citrus. Midori melon liqueur from Japan combines with milk in a beautiful way – half and half – and makes for a lovely nightcap. I have tried the same with thick cream and it’s just as luscious.