Seasons greetings, friends!
Around this time of year, a certain holiday beverage makes its way into like 2/3 of my recipes. It goes in my coffee. It goes in my cocktails. It makes a great ice cream. I haven’t tried it over cereal yet, but I’m not ruling that out. I’m talking, of course, about egg nog. Made from milk, cream, sugar, and eggs, egg nog is traditionally associated with the Christmas season, and it’s frequently combined with spirits for a creamy, boozy holiday treat. Over the past few years, I’ve been playing around with egg nog drink combinations, and I’m happy to share the results of my experiments here…
Traditional Egg Nog & Spirits
It’s hard to find a spirit that doesn’t pair well with egg nog. While brandy is the traditional companion to egg nog, rum may have supplanted it in popularity nowadays. Personally, I’m a big fan of bourbon in egg nog, but I’ve also heard of people using vodka, amaretto, or Kahlua to outstanding effect. I also got a nice surprise a few weeks ago when I opened a big box of Christmas lights and stumbled across a post-it note I had written last year with a simple mathematical formula: “egg nog + tequila.” Sure enough, I combined the two ingredients, and it was outstanding. For purposes of this post, I even tried gin and egg nog, and while it wasn’t quite to my taste, I recognize even this combination has cocktail potential if you find the right flavors to pair with it. In short, there are few egg-nog-and-spirits combinations that don’t work, so experiment away! I usually go about 3-4 parts egg nog to 1 part spirit and then dust with a little ground nutmeg or cinnamon; never fails. But egg nog has even more potential as a mixer.
Egg Nog & Coffee
While we always talk about mixing egg nog and spirits, I feel like we often overlook a less boozy pairing: coffee. I first learned this trick from a fellow chaplain on social media (shout out to Ben Burton). The logic is sound: people put cream, milk, and sugar in coffee all the time, and what is egg nog but those three ingredients plus egg? So egg nog in coffee isn’t that radical a departure. Still, the difference is just subtle enough to make coffee around this time of year a little extra special.
As an added treat, since spirits and egg nog pair well, and coffee and egg nog pair well, and coffee and spirits pair well, it logically follows that all three can make for a tasty cocktail! I’ve been blasphemously referring to coffee, egg nog, and bourbon as a “Holy Trinity,” and it’s become my regular drink for this time of year. The recipe couldn’t be simpler (all three ingredients stirred in a mug), but for entertaining during the holidays, I recently added another classy egg nog beverage to my repertoire…
Egg Nog Martini
Sadly, I can’t take credit for this recipe; I originally saw it here and tweaked it a bit for my family. The egg nog martini combines amaretto, vanilla vodka, and egg nog, and while the drink is incredibly simple, adding garnish and a coupe glass make for a very sophisticated presentation.
Ingredients:
1 oz amaretto
1 oz vanilla vodka
4 oz egg nog
Combine all ingredients in shaker with ice. Shake, strain, and serve in a chilled coupe glass. Dust with ground nutmeg and garnish with a cinnamon stick floated across the middle of the drink.
The egg nog martini was the signature beverage of our Thanksgiving meal, and it was a huge hit. I can’t recommend it strongly enough. (Sidebar: yes, I realize the hypocrisy that I’m referring to this gin-less, vermouth-less, bitters-less drink as a “martini” even when I’ve complained in the past about calling drinks “martinis” just because they’re served in martini glasses. Whatever. Language evolves. Cocktails evolve. It’s the holidays. Just roll with it.)
So however you take your egg nog, whether with brandy or coffee or rum or ice cream or some other combination, I hope you have a happy holiday season! Make sure to drink responsibly and with good company!