Good cocktails often have great stories behind them, and that’s certainly the case for the Avery Milk Punch from Rayo in Mexico City. Prohibition, an horchateria, a defunct 19th Century tractor company, the tale that led to the creation of the drink is one worth hearing.
To make things even better Rayo Creative Director Tito Pin Perez looked locally for all the ingredients in the bar’s Avery Milk Punch, making for a drink that’s truly unique to Mexico City. Check out the story below and learn to make the drink for yourself.
Bar:
Rayo
Bartender:
Tito Pin Perez, Rayo Creative Director
Cocktail Name:
Avery Milk Punch
Type of cocktail:
Milk Punch
Inspiration:
The most Interesting cocktail on our menu is the Avery Milk Punch! It all started with a simple question: why is there a plaque on the front of the house with a Bulldog?
It turns out that the Avery Company was a company that produced the most “advanced” farming equipment and tractors at that time with steam technology. That was pretty amazing, but what made this super interesting was that the company was only around from the late 1800s until the 1920s and they were all the way in Illinois! So then more questions came, like how does a tractor come all the way down from Illinois to CDMX in the late 1800s. Turns out, one of the owners of the house had bought one, and brought it down by train to help around the property, and it became his pride and joy. He later turned the first floor into a horchateria (commercial rice water spot) where many locals would spend their weekends. During the 1920s, the Avery Company went bankrupt because of prohibition. The owner of the tractor saw the opportunity and decided to become a sort of smuggler and bootlegger! He started using the tractor to haul Mexican spirits to the nearby train tracks and he sent spirits to the U.S. The plaque became a symbol for a speakeasy in his horchateria, where now you could get a nice refreshing horchata with some punch! This amazed us and we just had to tell that story through our cocktail.
What make it unique:
We decided to use a cocktail style of the time (milk punch) and decided to use only ingredients found in Mexico at the time (fig, green apples, lemon, milk, and vanilla tea). We wanted a modern Mexican spirit to better help tell the story, so we used Mexican moonshine, and thus Avery Milk Punch was born! For the garnish, we had help from a very famous cheese judge. We told him about the ingredients in the cocktail and he made a perfect pairing with gorgonzola cheese! So we stuffed olives with Gorgonzola cheese for an umami explosion and amazing culinary experience.
Ingredients and measurements:
- 1600 ml Aperol
- 600 ml Apple Juice
- 600 ml Vanilla Tea
- 420 ml Lemon Juice
- 660 ml Juan Montaña Mexican Moonshine
- 210 ml St. Germain
- 210 ml Stregga
- 300 ml Cinnamon Syrup
- 195 ml Grand Marnier
- 1200 ml Whole milk
Directions:
Milk punch method, batched and then poured. Served with gorgonzola stuffed olives.
Glassware:
Glass mug
Garnish:
Gorgonzola stuffed olives
