As soon as the eggnog has hit the shelves you know it’s the Holiday season! Dana and Seth sure love their eggnog, and of course spiked! We’ve all come to enjoy this traditional drink each year and decided to do a BLIND taste testing to find the perfect eggnog.
First…
We started off with the main ingredient, eggnog! We decided it’s best to determine which eggnog we like to use in our drinks. Between four people, we tasted four eggnog’s. Shatto (if you are not in Kansas or Missouri this will be hard to come by), Organic Valley (which can be found at Whole Foods), Horizon (found at Target) and Anderson Erickson (AE Dairy found at your local grocery store).
Each person was to rank each nog from 1-4 stars with the 4 stars being the best one (again, no one knew which brand they were drinking). The overwhelmingly favorite was the Organic Valley coming in at 15 of 16 stars. It was described as having nice flavor, spicy notes and cinnamon, slight egg flavor and nutmeg. In second was AE Dairy with 10 of 16 stars. This one was described as tasting like a vanilla milk shake, caramel after taste and overall smooth. Coming in at 8 of 16 stars was Horizon. It had more of a thinner consistency and a banana flavor to it. Lastly was the Shatto coming in at 7 of 16 stars. Minus Dana, we all felt it was too sweet and had a bubblegum flavor to it. Dana…enjoy the rest, it is all yours.
Second…
Time for the best part, the alcohol! Seth spent a lot of time researching all the various types of eggnogs, and what people like and dislike. He determined that the best alcohols to use for this taste test would be rum, bourbon and Cognac. Some of the articles he read combined alcohols for the best result. So, using our favorite eggnog, Organic Valley, we created 6 versions to test: Rum, Bourbon, Cognac, Rum + Bourbon, Rum + Cognac, Bourbon + Cognac.
Again, we did a blind taste test, rating each from 1-6 with 6 being the best. We were all a little shocked with our winner….drum roll please…..scoring 20 out of 24 stars was eggnog with CONGAC! Some of us had never even had cognac before ha. The consensus was that is was very smooth and a light alcohol flavor. In second was Rum + Cognac with 16 of 24 stars. Adding the rum to cognac adds a little balance of sweetness and some extra spice. Next was Rum + Bourbon with 14 of 24 starts. Very similar to the Rum and Cognac. Mixes well and smooth taste. Rum by itself came next with 13 of 24 starts. I think at this point it really gets a little more to your preference of sweetness or more alcohol flavor. Rum alone is good, but definitely on the sweeter side. In 5th was bourbon and eggnog. Still tasting good and flavorful but a little stronger alcohol taste. Last but not least was Bourbon + Cognac. It was very strong on the alcohol taste. We felt it overpowered the eggnog.
As you can see with these results the last 4 most likely came down to a persons preference on sweet/alcohol because there is only a 2 star variation. Our recommendation is to start with the Cognac and progress from there if you don’t love it. We really had a lot of fun doing this and are thinking of our next blind taste test to do.
Now to make this the perfect eggnog, you need appropriate drink wear. Scoop up some of these Cousin Eddie approved moose mugs at your local Bed Bath & Beyond. Cheers and Merry Christmas you Filthy animals!
Award Winning Recipe…
5 Shots of Organic Valley Eggnog
1 Shot Cognac
