It’s the holiday season 🎼 and for many of us that means get togethers with loved ones and traditions, all tied into feelings of celebration for many different reasons.
Celebratory drinks are seen as a staple for many! Here in the US, for these holiday months, eggnog is typically that - the drink that brings warmth and fills many with that HOLIDAY feeling.
In Puerto Rico, that holiday celebratory drink is Coquito, meaning “little coconut”…. Remember I told you we add “ito” to many, many different things 😆 Its been said that it was included in Puerto Rican cook books in the 1950’s but really grew in popularity in the 70’s. Now, a yearly tradition, especially around the months of November to January, taking us from Thanksgiving to Three Kings Day.
It’s savory flavors come from a mixture of evaporated milk, coconut milk, cream of coconut, condensed milk, cinnamon, vanilla and (traditionally) rum.
Being so rich and creamy, it makes perfect sense to complement it with the other staple drink of Puerto Rico and our purpose here at Nona Coffee - COFFEE. We decided to use our cold brew coffee which is made by coarsely grinding our freshly roasted beans and steeping them in water for up to 22 hours at a time.
We wanted to make it a perfect combination of both flavors - so we taste tested recipes with different amounts of all the components. We ended up not using all the ingredients of the traditional coquito but found a good ratio of most of the ingredients where the base of cold brew coffee really shines through!
We hope that with each sip may it help, 1. Bring you together with others, 2. Foster gratitude, 3. Spark ideas!
Merry Christmas to you ~ We pray for a multitude of blessings for you this holiday season and this year to come!