Breakfast for Dinner

A milk-washed coffee drink we made up at the distillery: Rising Sun, a lot of espresso, maple and orange, clarified through milk until it pours clear and silky. It drinks like a cold brew that has had a very good night out. Makes about six serves; milk washing is a batch job.

Ingredients

• 300 mL Rising Sun
• 120 mL fresh espresso, cooled (4 shots)
• 60 mL maple syrup
• 90 mL fresh orange juice
• 30 mL fresh lemon juice
• A pinch of salt
• 150 mL full-cream milk, for the wash

Method

1. Mix everything except the milk in a jug and stir until the maple is dissolved.
2. Pour the milk into a second jug, then pour the cocktail mix into the milk (always this way round). Stir once and leave it for an hour; the acid and coffee will curdle the milk.
3. Strain through a coffee filter or a clean muslin-lined sieve. The first pass will be cloudy; pour it back through the curds a second time and it will run clear. Bottle and keep in the fridge; it holds for weeks.
4. To serve, stir 90 mL over ice in a rocks glass, or serve straight up in a chilled coupe. A dusting of cinnamon or a strip of orange peel to finish.

Where it comes from

Milk punch is older than the cocktail. Recipes for clarified milk punch appear in English books from the early 1700s, and Benjamin Franklin wrote one out in a letter in 1763. The method is the same one we use: curdle milk with an acidic spirit mix, then strain out the curds. The casein in the milk takes the harsh tannins and most of the colour with it, and what is left is clear, soft on the palate and keeps for weeks.

Rising Sun already carries cold-drip coffee, pimento, cacao and cinnamon, so the drink is built around it. The extra espresso is deliberate: the wash softens coffee bitterness, so it needs more going in than you would think.

Draft: Alex to confirm the quantities and the espresso count before this is published. The method is standard; the numbers are a best reconstruction.