At Richmond restaurant Heritage on Main Street, bar manager Jess Benevour serves a “Should Have Had a V8” cocktail based on seasonal produce and food stuffs. The current iteration with Toma Celena cheese rind (nutty Italian cheese), cucumber, garlic scapes, basil, mint and lime, sounds like a savory appetizer. Spoiler alert: It’s not. It’s a shockingly translucent cocktail.
At Charlotte’s Southern Deli and Tapas downtown, owner Paul Polk is serving a clarified Bloody Mary. It has tomato juice, granulated garlic, fennel, grated horseradish, among other things (recipe below). The finished product looks like a martini but holds on to all the tomato and spice of the brunch drink.
How? Cocktail clarification, or more specifically, milk-washing.
In more technical speak, milk-washing is the process of adding dairy proteins into an acidic mixture where they bind to the polyphenols responsible for that bitter or astringent taste on your palate (and, on occasion, color). They curdle and the pesky, phenolic molecules get snagged in the lumpy fold. When the curds are filtered out, liquids with prickly, acid-forward edges, tongue-scraping tannins, or rough, unrefined spirits become smoother, rounder, softer.
The process of milk-washing, or dairy clarification, is centuries old. Many reference British housewife Mary Rockett for the inception of dairy clarification. Rockett’s recipe strains brandy, lemon, and hot milk through a flannel bag creating an alcohol beverage that’s shelf stable, a key component when refrigeration wasn’t a prominent thing.
Because milk-washing a cocktail creates a more subtle, finished product, with ingredients that can be all over the map, a conventional cocktail can become something else entirely.
Polk says he likes a clarified cocktail because it produces more nuance in some beverages. Polk’s Bloody Mary uses vodka from Black-owned, Maryland-based Blackleaf distillery, a delicate floral vodka distilled in the Cognac region of France. Vodka can easily be overwhelmed in a drink by its counterparts; this clarification allows Blackleaf to shine.
Not all cocktails benefit from clarification, however. Polk cautions that salinity and acidity are paramount. Milk-washing alters the texture of the cocktail and some of your classic cocktails are knocked off kilter, taste-wise, when their character is changed.
Dave Lozoya, bartender at The Emerald Lounge, says he got into cocktail clarification during the pandemic and it’s become a little bit of an obsession. “I went home last night and took a few cocktails I’ve been working on through the clarification process,” he says. Lozoya agrees with Polk on balance. “Cocktails with low acidity shouldn’t be clarified; mainly because the low acidity wouldn’t cause the casein [milk protein] to congeal.” He doesn’t have any on the menu at Emerald Lounge yet but is considering clarifying a Negroni with chocolate milk.
Richmonders can try Benevour’s seasonal clarified cocktail now at Heritage Wednesday through Saturday and Polk’s Bloody Mary on April 28 during Charlotte’s fifth anniversary event, a Fancy-Ass Brunch. The brunch is a five-course affair in collaboration with chef Leah Branch of The Roosevelt, Rabia Kamara of Ruby Scoops and George Carroll of The Chef Haus. Tickets are available here.
Polk’s Clarified Bloody Mary Recipe
Ingredients (makes one quart)
315 ml tomato juice
315 ml vegetable juice (Polk likes V8 for this.)
105 ml Blackleaf vodka
50 ml lemon juice
1/4tsp granulated garlic
1/8 tsp fennel seed
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
salt, pepper, tabasco to taste
100 ml milk (set aside)
Equipment: mixing glass, strainer coffee filters, coupe glasses
Process
Combine all ingredients excluding the milk into a mixing glass. Stir to incorporate.
Pour the milk into the mixture and gently stir.
Set up a container with a strainer lined with the coffee filter.
Strain the liquid using one coffee filter overnight in the refrigerator.
After refrigeration, take the mixture and strain through two coffee filters to remove cloudiness and produce a clear liquid.
Serve 2 oz in a coupe with a garnish.
Suggested garnish: Pitted Frescatrano olive stuffed with Point Reyes blue cheese
