The Coquito is a sinfully rich drink associated with Puerto Rico and Christmas. Some call it the Puerto Rican answer to Eggnog. While we lived in Seattle, I always looked forward to enjoying Rumba‘s take during the holiday seas. But once we moved to New Orleans, a plane ticket would be discovered. Fortunately, I discovered Coquitos are incredibly easy to make! You’ll spend more time finding the canned goods aisle in the grocery store than making the recipe.
There are many coquito recipes online, most using slight variations on the same base ingredients: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream of coconut. Here’s what I initially settled on after several batches:
- 1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
- 1 can cream of coconut, ala Coco Lopez (14 oz)
- 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (14 oz)
- 3 cups lightly aged rum (Puerto Rican, ideally)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Optional: 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
Makes about 2 quarts. I like my coquito to be a bit boozy, but feel free to adjust the amount of rum downwards. Adjust spice quantities to suit your tastes.
Instructions:
- Add all ingredients to a large blender.
- Blend on high for 2 minutes.
- Taste liberally. If not rummy enough for you, add more rum and blend again. Repeat until rummy.
- Transfer to containers, e.g. bottles or Mason jars. Chill in refrigerator overnight.
Wait! There’s more!
After making several batches, I noticed that the cinnamon and other ground spices sink to the bottom and added a slightly gritty texture. Also, it seemed the spice flavor wasn’t fully present, due to the viscosity of the liquid.
Luckily, there’s an easy solution — Spiced rum! But before your reach for your Captain Morgan or Kraken, known that not all spiced rums are the same! What you have on hand may not have the spice flavors you’re after. But if The Captain is your jam, give it a whirl. Also take heed that most spiced rums are heavily sweetened. Believe me, the base coquito recipe is already sweet enough on its own.
For my coquito, I want a drier, more refined spiced rum. Something like Chairman’s Reserve Spiced or Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum, which keeps things in the Puerto Rican domain. If you have rums like this on hand, fantastic! If not, there’s an easy way to make what you’re after
About an hour or two before you blend the ingredients together, put your rum in an airtight container like a Mason jar. Add the ground cinnamon and any other ground spices you desire. Shake occasionally to keep the rum and spice intermingling. If you want it even spicier rum, infuse for longer.
Essentially, you’re making a flash spiced rum. The alcohol in the rum works quickly to extract flavors from the spices. Much faster than the thick, cold coquito liquid does. Should you not want the ground spices in the final coquito mix, simply strain the spiced rum through a very fine chinois strainer, or a metal coffee filter.
Making coquitos is super easy! Open cans, pour into blender, blend; So don’t feel constrained by the basic recipe above. Experiment with other additions like cloves, almond extract and other seasonal spices. Report back in the comments!
Made with Don Q Gold (i.e., an unsweetened rum) this recipe resulted in a drink that is shockingly, burningly sweet. Although I’ve spent considerable time exploring Puerto Rico, I’ve never been there over the holidays and therefore have not tried Coquito before. I’m willing to accept that the average Coquito enthusiast may very well have a palate with a tolerance for sweetness higher than mine, but this recipe, even when ice cold, seems just way too sweet. I’ve got two thoughts. First, I wonder if perhaps coconut cream (i.e. not sweetened cream of coconut like Coco Lopez) might work better. Alternatively, digging around online for more Coquito recipes, I found several recipes almost identical to this one that also included a 15oz can of unsweetened coconut milk.
Thanks for the comment. Every body has a different tolerance for sweetness.
Most recipes I’ve seen specify cream of coconut, and often mention coco Lopez.
Personally, I would first start by reducing the cream of coconut to see where that puts you.
Good luck! And let us know what you find out.
Try using a can of evaporated in place of the condensed milk. The evaporated milk shouldn’t have the added sugar that the condensed milk has.
Most traditional coquitos include some egg form in it where it helps with the spice distribution within the bottle and blends well with the other ingredients. I personally use only egg whites. You can always use egg substitute if you are allergic to any part of the egg. Remember the eggs are used for binding and consistency as well.
Coco Lopez is basically already sweetened, condensed coconut milk. Instead if you use a can of full-fat coconut milk (like a Thai brand) the result will be much more balanced.
As always you are in incredible resource, going to make this for my December event and spice my rum….wish me luck.