5 Slides
Oddball
A milk punch is made by adding dairy to a cocktail, letting the acid in the drink curdle the milk, and then slowly straining it, resulting in a silky-smooth and clear drink with robust flavors that bely its light appearance.
Logan Rodriguez, beverage director of Oddball in New York City, named his version the Pseudo-Banana based on his discovery that juiced jicama smells similar to a barely ripe banana. No bananas are involved in the drink.
Also in New York, at Isla & Co. LES, Parched Hospitality Group beverage director Jeremy Ortiz offers an Espresso Martini Flight, which includes the Coco Divine, a punch clarified by milk infused with smashed Australian Tim Tam cookies.
The Factory at Night on Earth in Los Angeles, developed by co-owners Mike Capoferri and Camron Robertson, actually uses cream cheese instead of milk in an attempt to make a clear cocktail that evokes the flavor of blueberry cheesecake.
Slivovitz, the Eastern European plum spirit, is the starting point of Eastern Promises, a milk punch at Mileta in Lexington, Ky., named for a 2007 Viggo Mortensen film.
And the Modern Vices, a milk punch at Little Torch in Miami Beach, Fla., the team of Lowder-Tascarella Hospitality actually isn’t made with dairy, but with coconut milk, which it turns out also can be used to clarify a drink.
