For someone who never really grew up eating Oatmeal (I have a thing against mushy textured foods), I can’t believe how well this cocktail came together, and I’m so excited to share this recipe with you today! It combines some H by Hine Cognac, White Flesh Peaches, Antica Formula Vermouth and Oatmeal-infused milk. This sounds like a very odd combination, especially since I don’t typically pair vermouth with milk, but boy does it work!
Everything about this cocktail happened by fluke. It all started when the concept of oatmeal came into my head. Don’t ask me why Oatmeal even came into my head, because I never had it as a child, but I have a few packets in my cupboard for the odd moments that my boyfriend has a craving. That got me thinking about the episode of Chef’s Table with Milk Bar owner Christina Tosi. Food documentaries are my life. I love them, pretty sure I’ve watched everything on Netflix and more. Anyway, what put Christina and Milk Bar on the map was her creation of ‘cereal milk’. It’s pretty much a reduction/infusion of cereal and milk. This thought process made me think that oatmeal-infused milk would work wonders, ESPECIALLY in a cocktail.
From there everything fell into place. By chance I had only one peach left in the fridge and it was the ‘White Flesh’ variety. I have to state…THERE is a difference. This cocktail would be completely different if I had the typical yellow peach in the fridge, which tends to have a ton of acidity. So I muddled a few slices of the White Flesh Peach in the shaker, and my first thought was to actually make a milky Sidecar. Way back, playback, the Sidecar was my first original cocktail that I fell in love with, but I never really have a ton of it now because it’s hard to find a quality Cognac at a decent price. That’s where H by Hine Cognac comes in. As soon as I realized they had a product they wanted to use for cocktails, I jumped on this. Hine rare is one of my FAVOURITE cognacs in the market, PERIOD.
So with the idea of a sidecar in place, I decided to throw in some Antica Formula Vermouth. I guess I had a morph of a manhattan and sidecar lovechild in mind. I did NOT know how vermouth would react with the milk, but I had to give it a try. With a touch of fresh lemon and bitters, I gave this a hard shake. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t want to admit that it needed egg whites, but it did. Plus the sweetness wasn’t there to balance the cocktail out, because I thought the honey in the oatmeal infusion would be enough.
Okay, so on to attempt number 2! I took the ice from the shaker and put in 1 egg white, also threw in 1 brown sugar cube with 1 heaping spoon of the oats that was slowly drying out. Now, my laziness meant that my dry shake was ineffective in creating a nice foamy top. My bad. But what I strained out turned into a masterpiece, and my recipe includes the RIGHT way to put this together. So without further ado, I bring you the best oatmeal breakfast you’ve ever tasted.
Also, shout out to @nickassaur and giving me the inspiration for this cocktails name!
Breakfast of Champion - Peach & Oatmeal Cocktail
A delicious blend of H by Hine Cognac, oatmeal infused milk, white flesh peaches and egg whites.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz H by Hine Cognac
- 2/3 oz Antica Formula Vermouth
- ¼ White Flesh Peach Slightly chopped
- ¼ oz Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
- 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
- 1.5 oz Oatmeal-infused Milk*
- 1 Brown Sugar Cube
- 1 Spoon of Wet Oatmeal
- 1 pinch of Cinnamon Powder
- 1 Egg White
Instructions
- In a Shaker, soak sugar cube in bitters with peach slices and muddle to a pulp.
- Add Cognac, Vermouth, lemon juice, Oatmeal Milk, 1 spoon of leftover oatmeal and Egg white and give this a Dry Shake.
- Add ice to shaker and vigorously shake until cold to the touch and double strain into your favourite coupe glass. Sprinkle Cinnamon powder over top and optional White Flesh Peach flower.
Recipe Notes
*How do I make the Oatmeal-infused milk? It’s easy. For 1 packet of oatmeal, pour with ½ cup boiling water and ½ cup milk, 1 tbsp of Honey, 1 pinch of cinnamon. Let this sit for 2 minutes before straining through a fine mesh strainer. I did this over the stove stop, let it simmer for 2 minutes to really extract as much flavour as possible! This made about 3 cocktails once the milk was strained.
