The Key Differences Between Eggnog And Puerto Rican Coquito

It wouldn't be the winter holidays without a few polarizing food and beverage choices including questionable cookies, novelty-flavored candy canes, and of course, eggnog, a drink where people hotly debate what (if any) kind of booze to add, whether it's worth the bother of making it yourself, or whether it's even safe to drink something containing raw eggs. To throw one more question into the mix, would you consider the Puerto Rican drink coquito to be a subcategory of eggnog, or is it its own thing?

We won't take sides on the last-named issue, other than to note that eggnog, with its roots in medieval monasteries, is likely to be the older of the two drinks. It's possible that the Spanish introduced the drink to the Caribbean where it was adapted to make use of the rum that was being produced in Puerto Rico starting in the 16^th century. 

As eggnog is often made with rum as an alternative to whiskey, brandy, or other types of liquor, the rum isn't the key component that separates coquito from a more standard eggnog. If there's one difference that really stands out, it would be the inclusion of coconut milk (the name "coquito," after all, means "little coconut"), but even this ingredient alone doesn't tell the whole story.

Your basic eggnog consists of little more than eggs, sugar, milk and/or cream, plus the booze of your choice if you're going the spiked route. (If you're not a medieval monk, spirits are entirely optional.) You can also spice it up with nutmeg, cinnamon, or even cloves (if you must).

If you're making coquito, however, the first step is to grab a can opener, since three of the key ingredients come from a can: the aforementioned coconut milk, as well as evaporated milk and that favorite Latin American staple, sweetened condensed milk. Even if coquito does have colonial roots, recipes for the drink as we now know it didn't appear in print until the 20th century. It's possible that some of the beverage's popularity may have been an indirect result of a marketing campaign by Nestlé to promote its La Lechera brand of leche condensada throughout the region.

Qoquito may also be thinned out with the addition of whole milk and rum and can include flavorings similar to eggnog, but the one thing you won't need to do to make it is break any eggs. While Mexican-style coquito typically includes this ingredient, Puerto Rican coquito gets plenty of richness from the canned milk trio alone.