There are a few holiday staples in my family but none is more beloved than the Coquito.

Coquito is a Puerto Rican drink sort of like an egg nog but with a coconut base and rum instead of bourbon or brandy. One cookbook author calls it “Puerto Rican moonshine.” During the holidays the Coquito is always flowing and because it really packs a punch, new comers to the drink are urged to sip it instead of chugging it down.

In my family even the kids got their own virgin batch of Coquito!

Every family has their own coquito recipe and some people guard their family recipe like they were the Heinz family.

Earlier this week I attended the 4th annual Coquito Masters competition, hosted at the Museo Del Barrio, to find the best coquito in all of New York City. The event was started by Debbie Quiñones, who founded the International Coquito Federation,  One day Debbie lost her lost her local Coquito distributor, and was forced to find a winning recipe herself. The event started in her own living room but now boasts qualifying competitions in all the 5 boroughs with the top 10 Coquitos facing off against one another for one night only.

So what should participants and celebrity judges look for?

A great Coquito should have “Great body, balanced flavors, alcohol but not so strong that it knocks you over, that is sweet and has texture, and you taste the coconut. Not watery, but not so chunky” said Quiñones “You are delighted, because it blends wonderfully on your tongue,” she summed up.

To make this delicious mixture, Coquito makers balance the following basic ingredients, evaporated and condensed milk, coconut milk, rum, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves or nutmeg. Some recipes call for eggs, and some folks even get creative using ice cream or bananas, and even chocolate!

The Coquito was served in tiny plastic cups, each marked with a different letter. The crowd lined up at each station to sip, debate the flavor and consistency, and determine a score. The public chose the top three, and a panel of judges selected the winner.

The winners of the Coquito Masters were:

In 3rd place

Danisha Nazario followed her father’s secret recipe, though without his consent: He keeps the recipe locked in a metal safe beneath his bed.

“After begging for the recipe for years, my mom stole it for me,” Ms. Nazario said. “But I put a little twist on it.”

In 2nd place

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Leslie Colon

and in 1st place (drum roll please…)

Defending champion, Zoraida Graciani used a recipe passed down by her mother that she has tweaked over the years to beat the nine other finalists. Her husband, Rafael Vargas, said it was the quality of ingredients that set his wife’s coquito apart, and neither of them would divulge what was in it. “It’s a recipe we guard because of this competition,” he said.

For Puerto Ricans, Coquito is a taste of home, a link with previous generations and a means of preserving cultural identity and tradition.

So in my family our Coquito recipe is openly shared, and here it is, straight from my mom’s kitchen!

Mangual-Rios Family Coquito ( Serves 16)

2 Large Dry Coconuts 2 Cups of Puerto Rican White Rum 14 Ounces of Condensed Milk Nutmeg 4 Egg Yolks

1-Open the Coconuts, remove the meat of the coconut. Wash them and chop them up.

2-Put cup of rum in a blender, add the coconut and liquify. 3-Pour the coconut in a strainer and squeeze out the juice. Do this two times until you are left with 2 cups of Coquito.

4- Return your liquid to the blender and add the egg yolk and condensed milk. Add one cup of rum and mix it well.

5- Put the Coquito in a bottle and refrigerate it. Serve it after it has been in the fridge for 1 hour.

Congratulations to all of the participants!

Wesley Badillo

Elba Cabera

Danisha Nazario Janet Rodriguez Michael Velsaquez Frank Estrada Marta Egra Zoraida Graciani 2008 1st place winner Leslie Colon 2008 2nd place Iris Nieves 2008 3rd place winner

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Friends, Fun things to do with kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.