Bilberry Rum Punch

COCKTAIL INGREDIENTS:
- 22,5 ml Ron Matusalem 15 Rum
(or other column still aged rum)
- 22,5 ml Pampero Anniversario Rum
(or other black blended rum)
- 22,5 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
- 22,5 ml Simple Syrup
- 22,5 ml Bilberry Rum Liqueur

- 30 ml Milk (room temperature)

GARNISH:
- Lemon or Orange Twist

INSTRUCTIONS:
• Pour milk into a jug and let it reach room temperature (important).
• In another container mix the remaining ingredients.
• Slowly pour the cocktail into a jug with milk (not the other way round) and stir slowly until it curdles.
• Let the mixture stand for around 30 min.
• Use coffee filter to filter out the curdles.
(You might want to refilter the first few dashes of the liquid, since they usually come out cloudy)
• Store the cocktail in the fridge.
• When serving, pour cold cocktail over a large block of ice into a cocktail glass.
• Garnish with a lemon twist.

I really love clarified milk punches and I wanted to give it a shot at creating my own for quite a while. Finally, the right idea came to mind and I have managed to bring it to fruition.

I had a bottle of bilberry rum liqueur that I have made a few months ago and decided to incorporate that into a drink. After a lot of testing I settled on a rum based cocktail with a touch of lemon juice. Use of bilberry liqueur turns the drink dark red, purplish in colour. However due to the lemon juice it is a bit muddy and cloudy, so I decided to clarify it using milk punch technique and it worked fantastically well. In addition to clarifying the cocktail it mellowed some of the sharper rum notes and rounded the overall cocktail taste profile, bringing the ingredients together. Final result was a tasty deep red cocktail with a purple tint.

I have tested a few different rums. Initially I used white, slightly aged rum, but after settling on clarified milk punch technique I have chosen a combination of column still aged and black blended rums, for deeper taste profile. This rum blend pairs great with deep fruity palate of bilberries. A touch of lemon juice brings some extra freshness to the mix with simple syrup balancing out the cocktail. I have used 4:1 ratio of cocktail to milk for clarification. Pouring the cocktail slowly into the milk and letting it sit for half an hour for curdling process to take full effect. Filtering curdles out using a coffee filter and ending up with a delightfully tasty deep red cocktail. Cannot wait to test it on some friends.