Cable Car recipe from The Joy of Mixology 🛟:
My brother poured a glass of milk over my head. How dairy!
Almost any cocktail can be rendered clear with dairy IF it contains lemon or lime juice. It’s a simple process: mix the cocktail, pour it into the milk (milk volume should be 37.5% of the cocktail volume), and allow it to curdle. Then strain the curdled mixture through a nut milk bag over a coffee filter (faster than using a coffee filter alone). Out comes a smooth and clear beverage.
The secret behind its success lies in milk’s proteins, which have a knack for binding to specific compounds (polyphenols) linked to bitterness and astringency. When the milk curds are separated from the cocktail through filtration, these trapped compounds are also effectively removed.
The filtration is a slow process and may take overnight. However, once milk-washed, the drink can be stored in the refrigerator for weeks to months.
Tip: It is best to pour the cocktail into the milk instead of the milk into the cocktail. This allows the mixture to better interact with the milk before curdling. If the milk is added directly into the cocktail mixture, it will curdle on impact.
Above is a Cable Car: spiced rum, curaçao, and lemon juice. Below is the same cocktail after milk clarification.
Cable Car
- 1.5 oz spiced rum
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 3/4 oz orange curaçao
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
- Rim a cocktail glass with cinnamon sugar and chill
- Shake all with ice and strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with an orange twist
Alcohol: 15% Sugars: 18 g
Cable Car cocktail is a personal favorite, and the recipe is from the updated edition of The Joy of Mixology 🛟. If you’re curious and want to scope it out, along with these sleek Z-stem martini glasses 🛟, just use the hyperlinks in this paragraph!
Our favorite Cable Car videos:
The Educated Barfly:
Anders Erickson blind tastes 12 spiced rums and then makes a Cable Car with the winner:
Check out a great video on milk clarification from Truffles On The Rocks: