Dan Souza/America's Test Kitchen

This recipe is adapted from Ruby Punch, a recipe that cocktail historian David Wondrich found in Jerry Thomas’s Bar-Tenders Guide from 1862 (but can trace back even further) and which he describes as “a plush and seductive punch that practically drinks itself”. He’s not wrong. It features a seriously tasty combination of black tea, ruby port, lemon, and a funky rum-esque liquor called Batavia Arrack. In its original form (not clarified with milk) the tannins from the black tea and port provide grip and add texture, not to mention deep, inky color. After clarifying with milk the result is full bodied, but silky smooth with a rosé-like color and fruitiness. This is my personal favorite milk punch recipe.

This recipe is based off of the oldest known written recipe for milk punch (which I found in cocktail historian David Wondrich’s book Punch). The original features a simple combination of brandy, lemon zest and juice, sugar, and water and is clarified with scalded milk. My adaptations to Mary’s original recipe are few: I use cold milk in place of hot, add orange peel and orange juice to the lemon for a more complex citrus flavor, and scale it down to make one quart (the original makes about twelve 750-milliliter bottles). The finished drink is bright and clean with limoncello-like lemon (and orange) intensity, and the whey that remains after clarification provides velvety body.