For reference, these are the eggnogs pictured (from left to right):
- Lehigh Valley Eggnog (not pictured)
- Target Holiday Egg Nog
- Silk Nog
- Hood Pumpkin Eggnog
- Rice Dream Rice Nog
- Target Holiday Milk
- Borden Eggnog
- Swiss Farms Egg Nog
- Wawa Egg Nog
- Wegman's Holiday Egg Nog
- Upstate Farms Premium Egg Nog
- Hood Golden Eggnog
- Southern Comfort Traditional Egg Nog
When it came to judging for "Best Overall Eggnog", things were a little more interesting. This year's tasting started out in our traditional, completely subjective manner, but then we narrowed the field down to 5 finalists (Wawa, Swiss Farms, Wegman's, Upstate Farms, and Target), and prepared a blind tasting methodology where our panel of 6 judges would rate each eggnog on Taste, Appearance and Viscosity.
The cups on the right were the "palate cleansers" and consisted of Rice Dream Rice Nog. It was surprisingly effective. Now, don't get me wrong, this test was still far from scientific, but the methodology was much more thorough this year... and yet, we came out with similar results! Last year, there was a tie between Wawa and Swiss Farms Egg Nog. This year, Swiss Farms takes home the prize, but it only nudged out Wawa by a small margin.
The best tasting note of the day came from my sister-in-law's sister, who claimed that Southern Comfort Traditional Eggnog (I think) tasted like suntan lotion. Once she said it, I couldn't not taste the suntan lotion. Disgusting. Anyway, it was a good year, and I'm looking forward to next year.