In Season: Eggnog!
October 28, 2007
How often do you find yourself at the grocery store, checking off your usual list, when you come upon some little familiar surprise, a pleasant reminder of where we are in the year? Like hot cross buns in March (Oh my goodness, Ash Wednesday is next week!) or canning jars in August (Hmmm, we'd better do something with all those tomatoes ...). I love that!
Inside and out, I just love seasonal things. I love how strawberries ripen in June. I love those barrels of mixed nuts in November. I love the fresh citrus of January and the prospect of making marmelade on a snowy afternoon ... and I love it when eggnog appears in the dairy case once again.
Well, that time is here my friends - eggnog is officially in season! The other day I ran into the local market for a quick errand and there it was! All the flavors of last year and two more for good measure. Well, that, of course, called for a taste test!
As it happened, last Friday we had friends over for an afternoon playdate, so I arranged a small sampling of eggnog varieties. We each took a cup and I grabbed a sheet of graph paper. As we sipped each flavor I asked for scores from 1-5. Can you guess which eggnog won?
Sugar Cookie, 2.41
Gingerbread, 1.75
Pumpkin, 2.58
Vanilla, 3.91
Golden, 4.33
Yes, the traditional Golden Eggnog won! (As it did last year if memory serves.) It really does taste just like Christmas morning. :)
Vanilla was nice, if a bit like a melted milkshake. Pumpkin would be OK, say, as a novelty drink at Thanksgiving. Gingerbread was interesting, and we noted it was made with molasses. Sugar cookie - very yummy, though it didn't taste much like eggnog. Still, I could imagine it would be delicious as a wintry drink. And all of these would be really good baked into things like pancakes, cake, cookies etc. There are intriguing recipes on the sides of the cartons.
I think our taste-testers had fun. :) Right after this picture was taken they hunkered down to watch Evan Almighty (which by the way is a pretty cute movie!).
So don't forget to take a second look in that dairy case! Just like any other seasonal specialty, eggnog is here for just a short time. Enjoy it while it's "fresh!" :)
Oh, and if you check out the new flavors, let me know what you think!