Nothing cheesy about the newest ‘vodka’ from Britain
Made from whey, a byproduct from making cheese, even the lactose-intolerant can enjoy this drink
Got milk? Well, your cocktail just might, if your bartender happens to be one of the many food and beverage people intrigued by the promise of Black Cow Pure Milk Spirit, a new “vodka” hailing from a quaint-sounding dairy farm in England’s West Dorset region and made, entirely, from dairy.
If “milk vodka” conjures up an image a murky, cream drink, like the Dude’s famous White Russian, think again. Black Cow Pure Milk Spirit is crystal clear, like any other vodka. It’s made by fermenting and distilling “whey,” a sweet, viscous byproduct that comes from making cheese. Not exactly the sexiest raw ingredient that’s ever hit the stills.
In fact, Canada won’t let Black Cow call its product “vodka” on account of its novel base, even though, by taste, smell and appearance, it’s a vodka. So, given these obstacles, why whey?
“Whey is the problem child of the dairy industry,” said Paul Archard (a.k.a. Archie), one of Black Cow’s founders, who was just in town for the launch of Black Cow at a chic cocktail and cheese-tasting party at the Rosedale residence of the British Consul-General. “There’s too much whey in most cheese-making regions and since it’s a preservative, a sugar, it really isn’t good to dump into water tables. Aquatic life doesn’t like it.”
Whey is a potential environmental hazard in a number of places around the world, including Dorset, where Archard’s friend (and now business partner), Jason Barber, makes cheddar, as his forefathers have since the 1700s.
In all that time, though, nobody appears to have ever thought to find a way to make the whey drinkable — in part, because fermenting whey is often written off as an impossibility, since most yeasts die in the highly acidic lactose.
One of Barber’s employees, though, an immigrant from Poland, knew there were regions east of Europe that produced alcoholic milk. That sent Archard and Barber on a research jag.
“We discovered that in every cold climate, people can’t grow anything with a meaningful level of fructose, which you need to make alcohol,” he said. “But they can milk their animals, so in Siberia they milk their horses. And in Mongolia, they milk their cows. And in Tibet, yaks. And they all have some different form of fermented drink from that. And there we were in Jason’s kitchen, with 250 cows staring back at us.”
The key, it turns out, is the strain of yeast, some of which has an acidic palate and a hardy character. Archard and Barber aren’t the first to tweak to it, since there are a half-dozen spirits in the U.K. that have launched in the past few years.
It isn’t even the first in Canada, given Bob’s Super Smooth Premium Spirit, which hit the shelves last year, a whey spirit promoted as one of the first viable gluten-free options. Bob’s isn’t very vodka-ish, however, since it has a strong, strange, fruity aroma and flavour.
Closer to what Black Cow is doing was an experimental run launched by Yongehurst, a Toronto craft distillery, which worked with Monforte Dairy to produce a whey spirit for the Trashed and Wasted festival, a zero-waste food night that took place in March. It’s not for sale, but Yongehurst may do another batch.
It checks a lot of boxes when it comes to food intolerances, since it’s gluten free, essentially sugar-free and even fine for people with lactose intolerance.
The sweet, creamy taste of this soft and smooth vodka is all a result of the process, not residual lactose, which is removed through distillation and filtration. And, although almost every spirit is likely free of gluten (since it has been distilled), few producers are willing to guarantee it, since grain is in the air and cross-contamination is always a possibility. Black Cow doesn’t have that problem.
“Zero,” says Archard, of the possibility of gluten in his spirit. “All it is is milk. There’s no grain or gluten near it. Our still only does milk. And we’re only ever going to make one thing. We’re going to make pure milk vodka and that’s it.” Barber’s Black Cow cheese recently launched in Toronto, too. It can be found at the Cheese Boutique in the St. Lawrence Market. It is delicious and, as Archard points out, pairs perfectly with a glass of chilled Black Cow Pure Milk Spirit ($50.20; 486563) served over ice.