Gingerbread Jay: A Clarified Milk Punch

Recipe: Leo Ramos , Midnight Rambler at The Joule , Dallas

Photo: Dan Padgett

December 24, 2025

For Midnight Rambler’s “Christmas at the Mall” themed cocktail menu, bartender Leo Ramos created an ode to the epic gingerbread displays at Dallas’ NorthPark Center. To achieve “warm, almost cookie-like qualities,” he combines coconut rum with spiced brown sugar syrup, dry sherry, allspice dram, and ginger juice, then adds oat milk to the mix and takes it through the clarification process.

Ingredients

Yield:10

15 oz. coconut rum (Midnight Rambler uses Planteray Cut & Dry)
10 oz. oat milk
7 1/2 oz. spiced brown sugar syrup
5 oz. dry sherry
5 oz. fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 oz. allspice dram
2 1/2 oz. ginger juice
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Spiced Brown Sugar Syrup
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups water
5 whole cloves
3 whole allspice pods
1 tsp. green cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
1 nutmeg
1 star anise

Tools:2 containers
Glass:rocks
Garnish:gingerbread man cookie

Preparation

Add all of the ingredients, except the oat milk, to a container. Combine that mixture with the oat milk in a separate container. Let sit for 1 hour before straining through coffee filter. Start the filtration in a small container until it runs clear then transfer to a bigger container to finish. Pour slightly cloudy batch from the initial strain back into the filtering batch.

Pour 3 3/4 oz. of the clarified cocktail over a big rock. Garnish.

Spiced Brown Sugar SyrupIn a mortar, roughly break open spices. In a pan, lightly toast all the spices until fragrant.

Combine spices, brown sugar, and water in pot and heat until sugar is dissolved and the syrup is fragrant. Fine strain to separate spices from syrup. Will keep in the refrigerator for a week.