I've been making milk punch for friends as a gift for years now. On a lark I wanted to figure out how to produce it in larger batches with less manual labor and discovered the tip of the iceberg of what is the field of beverage filtration and food chemistry.
Turns out getting particulates out of a solution is a massive, massive industry with a large body of science, literature, and engineering practice behind it.
EDIT: Here's a few wiki entries I found as OK overviews. ChatGPT was handy for figuring out what relevant literature in the field was and terminology I could use to find more pertinent resources:
I originally used their spec, but have since learned milk punch is pretty forgiving. It works really well for complex flavors that have a lot of tannins or volatile constituents (tea, wine, citrus, etc). I’ve found good black tea and a deep, sweet port tends to be a winning combination.
Done correctly, the resulting punch is shelf stable. That said, it has a neat trick: since no filtration is perfect, you end up with trace amounts of milk fats in the solution that continue to react with any left over volatiles. This leads to a smoother, rounder flavor over time. The last batch I made with a bergamot tea and port ended up tasting like a fruity, complex boba tea after a couple months of rest.
Be warned that getting good clarity takes time and persistence if you’re going the coffee filter method. You’ll also get better flavor if you let the solution sit for up to a day before filtering. Enjoy!
Turns out getting particulates out of a solution is a massive, massive industry with a large body of science, literature, and engineering practice behind it.
EDIT: Here's a few wiki entries I found as OK overviews. ChatGPT was handy for figuring out what relevant literature in the field was and terminology I could use to find more pertinent resources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_engineering
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafiltration
3. Food Chemistry: https://www.amazon.com/Fennemas-Food-Chemistry-Srinivasan-Da...
4. Introduction to Food Engineering: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123985309/introductio...
5. Handbook of Food Engineering Practice: https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Food-Engineering-Pract...