While U.K. retailers are rationing baby milk powder and breast milk is being turned into jewelry, it seems that milk in all forms is proving to be a hot commodity. And now one British dairy farmer is using the white stuff to make vodka.
Jason Barber has created the world’s first pure milk vodka from a herd of 250 grass-grazed cows at his farm in West Dorset, England, according to the Daily Mail.
The dairy farmer makes his vodka, Black Cow, by separating the milk into curds and whey. The curds are used to make cheese, and the whey is fermented into a beer. That milk beer is then distilled and treated with Barber’s secret blending process to make a distilled spirit, which is then triple filtered before being bottled.
Barber’s special vodka blend took him three years to create, the New York Daily News noted. His inspiration came from wanting to diversify the produce from his dairy herd and his personal interest in vodka, according to the Black Cow website.
It looks like others are also interested in a new kind of vodka. Black Cow has been reviewed in recent issues of British Vogue, Monocle and Wallpaper*. The smooth vodka with a unique creamy character has gained celebrity fans like Daniel Craig, Elizabeth Hurley and chef Heston Blumenthal, according to the Daily Mail.
Although wine and cheese are often paired together, maybe pure milk vodka will go nicely with some cheddar, as the milk Barber uses for Black Cow is actually the same one he uses to make his 1833 cheddar — which won an award at the 2012 World Cheese Awards.
