El Morir Soñando a-la Francesa

I decided to take a few days off from the tastings and experimentation but no need to fret folks, I'm back with a new project. I decided to change gears a little by trying to create an alcoholic version of a Dominican drink called El Morir Soñando (To Die Dreaming). I remember my mom making these for me as a kid and the memory got me thinking that it would be an amazing cocktail. The original recipe calls for Orange Juice and Milk over ice. Simple enough, but I wanted something thicker so I decided to use Half and Half instead of milk. For the alcoholic portion of the drink, I used Stoli Orange. Here is the recipe I used:

Morir Soñando (First Attempt)
1 oz. Stoli Orange Vodka
2 oz. Orange Juice
2 oz. Half and Half

Build over ice in an old fashioned glass and shake.

I found myself at an interesting position with this drink. I found that it was quite smooth but somewhat bland. I added some more Stoli Orange but found that it was overpowering the half and half and orange juice. I added more juice and that over powered the other ingredients. I wasn't very impressed or convinced with this experiment. So I decided to re-work it.

This time I went back to basics by using regular whole milk, Tropicana Trop50 Orange Juice with some pulp that has 50% less sugar than Tropicana's regular orange juice and for the alcoholic part I used Grand Marnier. Here is the recipe:

Morir Soñando (Final Result)
1 oz. Grand Marnier
2 oz. Trop50 Orange Juice with some pulp
2 oz. Regular Whole Milk

Build over ice in an old fashioned glass and stir.

The result this time was 10x better than the version with Stoli Orange. The milk and orange juice blended with the Grand Marnier for a nice silky cocktail. The little bits of pulp gave the drink a little character, something to ride on the tongue while gliding down my throat. I have to say that I rather enjoyed this version with Grand Marnier. Another liqueur that you might want to use instead of the Grand Marnier might be the Spanish Orange liqueur Licor 43 which is made from citrus and fruit juices, flavored with vanilla and other aromatic herbs and spices, in total 43 different ingredients. Cointreau might also yield another interesting flavor combination en El Morir Soñando.