Making "White Russian"

My Food & Drink column on this blog is about to be continued with this post on the making of "White Russian".

So the scene is I am making a glass of White Russian of an evening in our kitchen.

The most important ingredient, after vodka of course, is the Kahlua liqueur. And I have it, as I do everything else, i.e. some milk and ice.

This thing was hung on my Kahlua bottle and contains cocktail recipes, all involving Kahlua of course. When I see these things and similar labels I always want to try but it rarely happens that you have all that you need. 

But in this case I do have everything at hand, here it is plus the kettle crowding the picture for some reason but it won't be needed.

Kahlua, vodka (I am using Belochka vodka which is a good one), milk and ice.

So roughly it's 1/3 of everything on ice in the glass. 

First I added vodka, then Kahlua (or was it supposed to be the other way around or does it matter at all?) and finally milk which is 10% cream in this case.

It is finished and stirred and ready. Sometimes I don't stir it.

I guess the composition can be varied to taste and also per desired strength. 

My personal idea is to mix cocktails in such a way so as to make them strong and yet not tasting of alcohol at all, in as much as possible, only the specific taste of the cocktail in question, not that I don't like the taste of pure vodka - I do and can drink it like a fish unmixed.

As for White Russian, for me it is a bit of an acquired taste but it grows on you. It's a sweet velvety cocktail, and it may or may not have been considered a ladies' cocktail once... before The Dude happened.

Here he is... using powdered milk by the way.