Milk coke

March 2, 2019 11:44 AM

It's milk and coke together, as a drink and allegedly popular in Birmingham. Other Brits try it, to differing reactions, but is not unknown to distant (eponysterical) MeFites. Irish News: “The best mixture is one third milk to two thirds coke. You have to pour the milk in first otherwise it’ll curdle. You’ve got about 10 minutes to drink it once you’ve made it, before it separates” - something like this (chemical equation). Variations allegedly include Ribena and milk, limeade and sterilised milk, and Mountain Dew and milk (America). Here is a complicated video recipe containing coke and ice cream. But this is unquestionably Birmingham cuisine.
posted by Wordshore (53 comments total)

A handsome guy I know tried Eggnog & Coke; reviews were positive, once he came out of the diabetic coma.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:52 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

This was something I made for myself as a kid! I called it "moke" and was baffled by the grossed-out faces people (mostly adults) would make at me. It's just a melty ice cream float, really.

I stopped drinking it once my dad started keeping his coke in his car in a vain effort to hide/manage/give in to his case-a-day habit. I don't care for coke on its own, and I don't digest plain milk well enough to bother trying it with a brown soda I like.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:52 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Add vodka and kahlua and you have a paralyzer. Yum yum yum.
posted by ashbury at 11:57 AM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

I mean, this isn't a world away from a Coke float, right? Except without the extra incentive and delicious consistency of ice cream.
posted by bwerdmuller at 11:59 AM on March 2, 2019 [12 favorites]

Yes, I used to love Coke floats with vanilla ice cream, even though there was a mild chemical reaction - I used to call it "crispy foam" when I was a kid - if you didn't eat/drink the whole thing quickly enough.
posted by yhbc at 12:01 PM on March 2, 2019 [11 favorites]

My mom and I did this all the time when I was kid! I don't even like soda but it's not bad.
posted by little cow make small moo at 12:02 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

So an Irish egg cream, then?
posted by adamg at 12:04 PM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

I believe Laverne on Laverne & Shirley liked milk and Pepsi?
posted by emjaybee at 12:04 PM on March 2, 2019 [29 favorites]

Moloko plus, droogs.
posted by merlynkline at 12:06 PM on March 2, 2019 [9 favorites]

I love vanilla ice cream and 7-UP so yeah, this isn't too far away from a Coke float or other types of floats. But why does the idea repulse me? And yeah even when Laverne DeFazio drank it, the idea seemed so foreign.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:23 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

A handsome guy I know tried Eggnog & Coke

Eggnog and 7-Up, when I was growing up.
posted by mordax at 12:28 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the Paralyzer was big when I was in college ~1990. And they say genXers only drank fuzzy navels, ha! The Cock Sucking Cowboy was also very popular.
posted by waving at 12:30 PM on March 2, 2019 [4 favorites]

this past holiday season i "invented" eggnog and orange seltzer, which is great, like a creamsicle!
posted by gorbichov at 12:38 PM on March 2, 2019 [4 favorites]

My first husband was a great fan of coke mixed with old coffee long before this was the trendy thing it apparently is now. All leftover coffee went in the fridge and then got mixed with coke which he drank from a big old plastic cup. He drank this nasty brew all day long. He also died at the young age of 51. Coke kills. Mixed with coffee or mixed with milk. Or rum. Poison.
posted by Plafield at 12:38 PM on March 2, 2019 [7 favorites]

When I was a kid I knew a guy who drank milk and coke. He called it a "moke". It tasted kind of like what's left after all the ice cream is gone out of a rootbeer float, but coke instead of root beer, of course.
posted by smcameron at 12:41 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

*checks restless_nomad's profile* Nope, not the same kid I knew.
posted by smcameron at 12:43 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

From the twitter link: I think milk is one of the most disgusting substances known to man

Yeah, I'm not surprised you don't like coke and milk.
posted by Akke at 12:49 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Y'alright Birmingham?

Oh god I miss naga lamb at Grameen Khana in the Balti Triangle.
posted by srboisvert at 12:51 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Going on the Keto diet took some adapting but I’ve reached a place where I’m okay with giving up pain au chocolat in exchange for putting 60mL or so of whipping cream in a 500mL Coke Zero.
posted by myotahapea at 12:52 PM on March 2, 2019 [6 favorites]

I would have Pepsi and milk on rare occasions when I was a kid. My father abhorred Coke, and relied on Pepsi for his case-a-day cola habit, so there was never Coke in the house but always some Pepsi in the fridge.
posted by ardgedee at 12:55 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Anyway, I remember Pepsi and milk as being an almost-good thing, like the combination just had to be tweaked in some way to tip it over into being delicious. So what I'm saying is I didn't really like it but would attempt it now and again just to see if I had been missing something.
posted by ardgedee at 12:59 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

RIP Penny Marshall.
posted by humboldt32 at 1:13 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mmm, it's very nice. Also with rootbeer.
If the conditions are just right sometimes the milk will curdle and rise to the top and you can skim it off and eat it with a spoon.

I'll show myself out.
posted by stray at 1:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would have liked this if I had tried it when I was ten. To my adult tastes, though, it sounds (and looks, especially in the article with the pictures of the fluids separating) disgusting.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:24 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Paralyzer? That’s a poor man’s White Russian or Caucasian, as The Dude would call it. (Who has cream on hand, anyway?)

I prefer a gringo - Kahlua, tequila, and milk/cream. ( A quick Google shows this is also called a Tequila Paralyzer, Black Goblin, and perhaps other names.) But, totally yummy.

Oh, and a Coke or root beer float with vanilla ice cream, also totally yummy and crunchy besides.
posted by sudogeek at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

And, what are you going to do after finishing up the Time Traveler's Guide to British Food and Drink, Strange...Then the Cake?
posted by Oyéah at 1:31 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Not a thing in this corner of Brum.

A good balti though, now you're talking.
posted by brilliantmistake at 1:52 PM on March 2, 2019 [4 favorites]

I've never heard of milk and Coke (other cola drinks are available), but I did once know a Scotsman who recommended a mixture of milk and 7-Up as a hangover cure. It's actually quite effective (with a couple of paracetamols) and rather tasty, but drink it quickly before it curdles.
posted by Fuchsoid at 2:02 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

A glass of Coke, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and some elephant.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:13 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Clearly you met No True Scotsman there, Fuchsoid — the correct hangover cure is Irn Bru.

I do know someone who drank Creamola Foam (weird-flavoured seltzer crystal things, meant for mixing with water) and milk. I've seen milk carbonated in a SodaStream (don't try it unless you like decorating). But I'd like to see someone try Alka Seltzer or effervescent vitamin C in milk ...
posted by scruss at 2:13 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Orange juice and milk tastes like Orange Creamsicle.
posted by Carol Anne at 2:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Let's leave Brum out of this, OK? It's got enough trouble already.
posted by rustipi at 2:43 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Rootbeer and milk is fucking delicious.
posted by PinkMoose at 2:49 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I used to buy this premixed drink of apple juice and milk when I live in Italy a while ago. It was delicious. I think it was German in origin, actually, apfel milch or something like that.
posted by newpotato at 3:07 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

rustipi, you're defending Brum, I was kinda talking about Birmingham. Look it up.

Sorry, I'll never stop laughing at that failed foreign interference.

I also think, in terms of bad taste with milk, sterilised milk is a Brummie thing, though. I've never seen it since I left, or maybe that was just that the 90s happened.
posted by ambrosen at 3:09 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

This sounds like the sort of thing my taste buds might like but my stomach might not be so happy with.

Coke and vanilla ice cream is usually fine, though.
posted by redrawturtle at 3:45 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

When I was much much younger and also immortal, I used to sometimes drink scotch and milk. But that's an entirely different culture.

Coke floats (coke and ice cream) were wonderful.
posted by luaz at 3:50 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

I like putting almond joy coffee creamer in my diet coke sometime(s.)
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:28 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

We called it "soda milk" when I was a kid—milk and Pepsi, roughly equal. My Mom would let us have it when we were sick.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:48 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I added 7-up to my milk.

I'm pretty sure there are carbonated milk-based drinks from Asian countries.
posted by porpoise at 5:26 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

We called it "soda milk" when I was a kid—milk and Pepsi, roughly equal

Yes I drank this a bit when I was a kid and we called it milk soda or soda milk or something like that.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:04 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

In theory, it's not different from an ice cream float, no, except ice cream contains sugar and emulsifiers to keep it from doing all the things that will go wrong with this.
posted by kafziel at 6:40 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper... and vanilla ice cream. It has the weirdest crunchy bits, eaten with a spoon.
posted by TrishaU at 7:15 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

I would make Ribena milk pretty frequently as a kid...I even think it was a suggested use on the bottle, certainly not something too crazy.

I've wondered for a while about fizzy milk, though. It would destroy my sodastream, I'm sure.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:42 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

For me, it all started when my roommate started bringing home gallons of fresh FULL CREAM milk from a local dairy.

I spend most of my waking hours at the computer. I always have a can of diet coke going. When I started drinking a glass of this milk every day, there was one problem. The glass was coated with cream which was very difficult to wash off, especially if I didn't go rinse the glass immediately. So I started pouring a little coke into the empty glass and swishing it around. It foamed and removed the coating from the glass nicely. Of course, I drank it. And it was good.

Pretty soon I was pouring in the coke when there was still an inch or so of milk in the glass and that foamed up even more. I was reminded of coke floats. This led to drinking milk and coke half and half, which was not just good, but delicious.

Thanks for the ffp, Wordshore. Now I know that I am not alone in this aberrant behavior.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:09 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

The Cock Sucking Cowboy was also very popular.

I have a name, thanks

jeez, you suck one cock in a cowboy hat at a party...
posted by aihal at 1:49 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

A glass of Coke, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and some elephant

aka the Omar Khayyam
posted by flabdablet at 2:42 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

This was a recipe in one of my mother's recipe books when I was a kid. I remember trying it once. It curdled. I was grossed out. I did not try again.
posted by lollusc at 4:24 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

> I'm pretty sure there are carbonated milk-based drinks from Asian countries.

Milkis

In North America you can find it easily at Korean-oriented grocery stores, and most definitely at H-Mart.

My own preference is for the regular and melon flavors.

There is also Calpis Soda, which has a similar flavor profile to Milkis.
posted by needled at 8:07 AM on March 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

This sounds aweful. But, milk and gin also sounded awful before I tried it. That moved it into the "okay, but not all that interesting" category of drinks. I can imagine this is similar. (Hint for those trying milk and gin: it's gotta be whole milk and very cold.)
posted by eotvos at 8:37 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Goes perfect with milk steak--boiled over, hard, with a side of raw jelly beans.
posted by oneironaut at 8:48 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ah paralyzers! Easily made with ingredients from the uni residence cafeteria (except the kahlua and vodka), delicious on the way down and not so much on the way back up.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:42 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I learned it from Laverne too, back in 1977. It's like a weak float. I always figured the roots were Milwaukeean.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:14 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]