A dairy farmer has launched a drink to get revellers ‘mooving’ on the dancefloor – the world’s first vodka made out of MILK.
Enterprising Jason Barber, 45, already supplies the milk that creates some of the country’s top cheddar cheeses.
Now he now ferments the whey separated in the cheesemaking process and distils off the alcohol turning it into vodka.
Black Cow, which is distilled at 40 per cent ABV, is already rumoured to be a favourite of James Bond star Daniel Craig – leading to the drink being nickname ‘the vodka mootini’.
Jason, from Childhay, west Dorset, took three years perfecting the process to produce the Friesian vodka.
He said: “I have always drunk vodka because I can get up the next morning. If I drink red wine I can’t.
“The Mongols conquered half the world on beer made from mare’s milk.
“So I thought, ‘Hold on! If they can do that in the middle of nowhere, surely I can do it out of cow’s milk?’ So I did – and everyone loves it.”
To make the tipple, Jason separates the milk from his 250 cows into curds and whey.
The whey is fermented into a beer using a special yeast which converts the milk sugar into alcohol.
He then distils the milk beer and treats it to a “secret blending process” with the vodka triple filtered and finished, before being hand bottled.
The curd, meanwhile, is used to make the renowned 1833 vintage cheddar cheese which is produced by another branch of the Barber family near Shepton Mallet, Somerset.
Black Cow vodka, which costs £22.85 for a 50cl bottle, has been awarded a silver medal at an international drinks competition in San Francisco and is sold at Selfridges and Fortnum and Mason.
