Panther Milk: developed by Spain’s elite military unit in the 1920s, this cocktail is a favorite among Barcelona’s college students!

Those who frequent the bars around Carrer de la Mercè, a street that runs through Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, are no strangers to this unusual drink. Known locally as leche de pantera, literally translated as “panther milk”, this dangerous beverage is, at its most basic, condensed milk, gin, and water or ice.

Spain’s elite military unit, the Spanish Foreign Legion, created it in the 1920s, but Its actual origins are quite a mystery.
Some say General José Millán-Astray, the unit’s head and founder, tasked a locally-renowned bartender to develop a cheap, simple cocktail recipe his men could make and serve while stationed anywhere, from the seaside to the Sahara desert. According to the legend, the General approached Perico Chicote of Bar Chicote in Madrid, a barman at the Ritz Hotel and, after having several delicious-yet-complicated drinks rejected, he finally pleased the general with a simple, nourishing mix of ingredients that travel well: condensed milk, gin and water. Bar Chicote has since been converted into the concert venue and club Museo Chicote – an homage to a man who was once the most famous bartender in all of Spain.
Skeptics, however, claim that Panther Milk evolved from within the Spanish Foreign Legion itself, with injured soldiers began mixing medical-grade alcohol with condensed milk while confined to infirmaries. As a result, once the men returned to their troops, they shared the recipe and upgraded to gin, or whatever spirit they had on hand.
Some colorful stories suggest that, while posted in the Sahara Desert, the Legionnaires used rum or whiskey instead of gin, and that in Spanish Morocco they would add kifi (marijuana) and gunpowder, removed from cartridges and sprinkled across the milky surface as a show of bravado.

Either way, in the ensuing decades, leche de pantera largely disappeared.
In the 1970s, however, it was resurrected by college kids. Around 1975, a former Spanish Legionnaire opened a bar called La Barretina – then a hot spot, now long gone – in an alley along Carrer de la Mercè, where he began whipping up chilled vats of the old favorite.
Students flocked to this seemingly-newfangled knockout of a drink, which came cheap and premade.
La Barretina’s neighbors quickly got wind of the trend as the area became inundated with youngsters.
La Barretina (the name refers to the traditional red Catalan cap) its peak churned out vats and vats of this chilled drink, which were drained dry nearly every night.
The bar across the street, Tasca El Corral, hopped on the bandwagon by making a less potent, more tasty pink version.
La Barretina has since shuttered, but the neighborhood’s “pink panther milk” (leche de pantera rosa) spot remains popular also three decades later!
A modern iteration might be comprised of a combination of gin, brandy, fresh milk, and condensed milk, and the top comes dusted with powdered cinnamon (and no gunpowder).

Images from Web – Google Research