Today I would like to add another recipe. In my last article about the Cherry Blossom Milk Punch I had presented a cocktail from the category of Clairfied Milk Punches for the first time here in the blog and I was absolutely thrilled by the result of this preparation method. And now I want to introduce yet another recipe here which was able to win a lot of praise when I served it to some friends of mine. And it is a recipe that is inspired by an old acquaintance.

What exactly Clarified Milk Punches are and how the production essentially works, I have already explained and described in the course of the Cherry Blossom Milk Punch article, which is why I would like to refer to it at this point. However, it is not mandatory to read this article first, with the help of the description below today’s cocktail can also easily be made. But if you want to know more about Milk Punches and wonder what exactly happens here, you should take a look.

The idea came to me when thinking about a cocktail that I already presented here in the blog a long time ago: the Negron. Yes, I did not misspell it, I’m talking about the Negron and not the Negroni. As you can read in the corresponding article, the Negron goes back to the Cuban Santería religion, where even cultic importance is attributed to a very similar drink. Inspired by the great interplay of rum and spicy (thai- or “holy”) basil (lacking the availability of Cuban basil), I wanted to go a little further this time and create a complex but slightly different kind of drink. For this I have combined By the Dutch Batavia Arrack, Haitian Clairin Sajous, Cuban white rum, Thai basil, liquid honey, lime juice and some coconut water and filtered it with the milk-punch method. The result is heavenly: a multi-layered and spicy drink with a mild character, which can be enjoyed as a tiki’esk (and quite potent) drink, but also as a digestive short drink after some Caribbean (or Asian) food. As a tribute to the inspiring Negron, I have named the cocktail after the Santería creator goddess of Obatala, which – as a funny side note – has even been drunk during the creation of humanity according to legend. And here’s the recipe for the Milk of Obàtálá!

Recipe “The Milk of Obàtálá”:

6 cl Cuban white rum
3.5 cl Batavia Arrack
2 cl Clairin Sajous
3.5 cl Thai basil syrup (see below)
3 cl lime juice
3.5 cl coconut water
1 bar spoon of liquid forest honey

6-7 cl cold whole milk (do not use fat-reduced milk!)

Thai basil syrup: First add sugar to a mortar with a roughly equal amount of fresh thai basil leaves and a lime zest which you have taken with a potato peeler. Use the pestle to grind everything into an herbal sugar of greenish color. Then mix with boiling hot water in a ratio of 1:1 in a pan and let it simmer until it reduces a little bit. Finally, strain the finished syrup through a fine sieve into an airtight container and refrigerate.

Preparation: First mix all ingredients except the whole milk in a mixing glass without (!) ice. Then pour the milk into another glass and pour the content of the mixing glass onto the milk. Stir with your bar spoon for about 30 seconds, the milk should already flocculate. Leave for about 30 to 60 minutes. Then place a coffee filter on a fine sieve and pour in the milk-cocktail mixture and catch the transparent liquid dripping down in a container. This process may take a while, but in the end you will have your transparent cocktail. Refrigerate until cold.

Glass: transparent Tiki-Mug or S.O.F. tumbler (depending on the context you plan to serve the drink)

Garnish: basil blossom

Buying sources: At specialized retailers or online