Ever think to yourself, what should I do with all those dragonfruit peels? I’m sure you have at some point in your fun filled, fine feathered life. Well, now, yessir, yessir, you too can find some use for refuse. Great tagline right? Well, it’s as easy as putting those dragonfruit peels in the trusty dehydrator for a couple days. Do this and you’ll end up with an herbal “tea” you can make with just plain water or in this case, milk, which we can then turn into whey and have ourselves a good old time and say things like “Whey to go!” and “No whey!” The dragonfruit peels don’t provide a whole lot of flavor but they do provide great color and you can also impress your friends and colleagues by using the whole damn fruit instead of throwing it in the trash. Yeah, do the whole thoughtful usage thing like your friendly neighborhood aging bartender.

Whey is a sort of easy cocktail hack. It’s part of the reason the milk punch you had at some fancy restaurant tastes so damn good. It’s one of the components of milk, along with water, sugars, the vitamins, hundreds of different proteins, fat, etc. Once you allow it to break, all you have to do is separate out the silky part, the whey, which is simultaneously sweet and sour. Add sugar and rum and you’re off the the races.

Let’s begin.

Dragonfruit Peel Whey Syrup

1 cup dried dragonfruit peel

.5 cup dried orange slices

6 cups milk

3 T burnt milk powder

1 tsp citric acid powder

2 oz. old lemon juice

Hardware

Four quart measuring cup

Chinois

Two sixteen inch lengths of cheesecloth

Blender

Two quart-sized deli cups or other similiar storage containers

Digital scale

Add dried dragonfruit peel, dried orange, and burnt milk powder to the six cups of milk and heat at 140 degrees for a half hour. After you turn off the heat, allow it to sit and steep for another half hour, then add and stir in the citric acid powder and 2 oz. of lemon juice. Let this sit and cool for another half hour and you’ll see curds develop.

Place the chinois inside the four quart measuring cup and then lay the individual pieces of cheesecloth over the chinois in the form of a cross and then push it down inside the cone of the chinois. Once you’ve done this, pour the milk “tea” inside. Just so you’re aware, it’ll look like puke.

The liquid at the bottom, however, is pure purple magic.

Whatever you do, refrain from pushing down on the coagulated mass mess or else it’ll make your purple liquid cloudy. Just let time and gravity do the work. It only takes less than an hour to complete.

Once you have your dragonfruit whey, weigh it, then add equal parts sugar to a blender and whir it all together. Done.

like I said, having any whey syrup to add to cocktails or even mocktails is a cheat code, dude. Why do you think all the best drinks have dairy in them? What, you don’t like mudslides, caucasians, grasshoppers, brandy Alexanders, egg nog, coquito? The best part is you have all the dairy flavor but now it won’t break if you add citrus.