dairy in the form of milk and cream has been consumed in alcoholic beverages for thousands of years. In kumis, an ancient mare’s milk drink from the Central Asian steppe that is still produced, it is the dairy itself that is made alcoholic through fermentation. Milk and cream have been mixed with separately fermented beverages such as wine or ale throughout Europe for many centuries, and they have been among the principal ingredients used to increase the palatability of hard spirits since the beginning of widespread European spirits drinking in the late Middle Ages. The acidity of many fermented beverages, as well as of acidic ingredients, such as lemon juice, that may be added to dairy drinks, will often cause the dairy to curdle. In some traditional recipes, the curds were consumed as part of the beverage, such as in the medieval English drinks posset or syllabub. See posset and syllabub.
This curdling of milk solids has been used as a method of preservation, such as in clarified Milk Punch, in which citrus juice, often assisted by heating, causes the formation of curds, which are then strained off and sometimes further removed through the use of an egg white raft (and more recently a centrifuge), leaving behind a clear, brightly flavored, alcoholic punch that is shelf-stable at room temperature for several months. See
Most dairy beverages, however, are unclarified, not only because of the difficulty of clarification but because the milk fat that is strained out in the curds is responsible for the quality of creaminess that dairy lends to drinks. Scailtin, a warm milk punch from Ireland, is thought by some to be the progenitor of many unclarified milk punches, such as Brandy Milk Punch and Bourbon Milk Punch. Some drinks pair dairy with eggs, as in Eggnog, a Christmas punch that employs both dairy and whole eggs, or the Ramos Gin Fizz, which elevates the classic egg white fizz with the addition of heavy cream. See Eggnog and Ramos Gin Fizz.
Though butter is not a common ingredient in the cocktail world, there are several examples of drinks that employ butter to lend them a rich flavor and unctuous mouthfeel. Most of these drinks seem to be variations on the centuries-old Hot Buttered Rum. See Hot Buttered Rum.
As mixology developed through the twentieth century, dairy became increasingly associated with the dessert or after-dinner drink, beginning in the 1910s with the Alexander and its more popular offspring, the Brandy Alexander, and soon followed by the Grasshopper. Cream has become a popular pairing with coffee liqueur, as in the Sombrero, with Kahlua and cream; the White Russian, with vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream; and the Mudslide, which is essentially a White Russian variation, wherein the cream has been replaced by Irish Cream, a shelf-stable, bottled mixture of Irish whisky and cream. See Alexander Cocktail; cream liqueurs; Grasshopper; and White Russian. The Mudslide can also be made as a frozen drink and has been almost since its inception in the 1950s, with the addition of ice and/or ice cream and the use of an electric blender. See frozen drinks, blender drinks. A series of alcoholic milkshakes has followed through the years, pairing ice creams of many flavors with almost any spirits or liqueurs imaginable. The 1950s also brought the Irish Coffee, the best-known exemplar of an entire class of hot coffee drinks, all of which are spiked with alcohol and topped with whipped cream. See Irish Coffee. Recent developments have found cocktail bartenders using Calpis, a Japanese brand name for a yogurt-like dairy beverage, as a mixer in cocktails both simple and complex, bringing the history of dairy and alcohol full circle to its Central Asian roots in kumis.
Buttery, Neil. “Possets.” British Food: A History (blog), April 28, 2012. https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/04/28/possets/ (accessed March 19, 2021).
Buttery, Neil. “Syllabubs.” British Food: A History (blog), January 3, 2013. https://britishfoodhistory.com/2013/01/03/syllabubs/ (accessed March 19, 2021).
Ensslin, Hugo R. Recipes for Mixed Drinks, 2nd ed. N.p.: 1917. Available online at https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1917-Recipes-for-Mixed-Drinks-by-Hugo-R-Ensslin-second-edition (accessed March 19, 2021).
Kozlik, Erik. “ Episode 076: The Milk Punch Episode.” Modern Bar Cart (podcast), November 24, 2018. https://www.modernbarcart.com/podcast/episode-076-the-milk-punch-episode (accessed March 19, 2021).
Ringmar, Erik. “How to Make Kumis.” History of International Relations website. http://ringmar.net/irhistorynew/index.php/welcome/introduction-4/from-temujin-to-genghis-khan/5-2-a-nomadic-state/how-to-make-kumis/ (accessed March 19, 2021).
By: David Moo