orange julius

3 1/2 oz Orange Juice
1 1/2 oz Whole Milk (*)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Vanilla Syrup
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with crushed ice, pour into a Collins glass, and top with more crushed ice if needed (shaking with cubed ice and straining into crushed ice would work well too). Garnish with an orange peel or wedge (here, a Siamese flag with 2 cherries), and add a straw.
(*) I have done this recipe without milk with good effect.

Orange Juliuses remind me of my youth when my dad would buy himself, my brother, and me these orange frothy delights at the Trumbull Mall in Connecticut. I remember my dad telling me that the froth was from egg whites which is why I included them in this drink. Initial run-throughs on this recipe with only egg white were rather satisfactory, but the addition of milk seemed to step up the creaminess of the drink. In fact, the combination of dairy and egg white is what is used in Rhiannon Enlil's Rum Julius that she crafted as a Ramos Gin Fizz variation more than a replica of the original. Moreover, while the shopping mall classic utilized a blender, my blender-free bar made me opt for crushed ice. The Siamese flag garnish came about from one of my mocktail drinkers, bartender Matthew Schrage. Well, when he isn't drinking mocktails, he is drinking Tom Collins (often, I start him with a complementary mocktail regardless). To up my game, I reflagged his Tom Collins on one visit after he ate his garnish. Another time, I doubled up his flag mid-drink so he had two. Later, I did the mental geometry to cut an orange disk down a radius and fold it to receive two cherries. To date, I have yet to out-do that Collins' garnish.
Getting past drink history and garnish theory, let's get into the glass itself! The garnish most importantly added fresh orange aromas to the bouquet, and the fruitiness from the Luxardo brand Marasca cherries did not hurt either. The sip was a delightfully tangy, creamy orange and lemon flavor combination, and the swallow continued the citrus idea with a smooth orange and vanilla medley.