12DC – Day 8: Eggnog!

Last year, I posted about my family’s eggnog tradition. Every Thanksgiving, we all bring a few eggnogs and have a tasting. We’re pretty bad about organizing it, but this year things went reasonably well, with 12 varieties and even a few new ones. I’m determined to do a true double blind taste test next year… Anyway, here’s this year’s lineup:

Eggnogs

For reference, these are the eggnogs pictured (from left to right):

  • Wawa
  • Swiss Farms
  • Turkey Hill
  • Lucerne Farms
  • Southern Comfort (Traditional)
  • Hood (Golden)
  • Hood (Pumpkin)
  • Hood (Sugar Cookie)
  • Southern Comfort (Vanilla Spice)
  • Wawa (Pumpkin Spice)
  • Lactaid
  • Rice Dream Rice Nog

Just like last year, there wasn’t particularly scientific or comprehensive about the process, but a general consensus arose. First, “flavored” eggnogs (like Vanilla Spice or Pumpkin, etc…), while tasty and a nice change of pace, were generally considered to be out of the running for the prize. For the most part, I don’t think we’ll be pursuing flavored brands in the future. This will lessen the quantity of egg nogs, but it will also make it easier to conduct a double blind taste test. Anyway, there was actually a tie when it came to decide the best eggnog. The winners:

Winners: Wawa and Swiss Farms

Wawa brand and Swiss Farms brand eggnogs came out on top, with 5 votes apiece. For those of you non-East-Coasters, Wawa is a popular convenience store (a la 7-Eleven, but better) and dairy farm, and their Eggnog is great. Swiss Farms is also a local dairy, and their stores are these strange drive through affairs… Their eggnog was a new addition this year, and obviously a successful one. It’s quite good. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a unanimous decision to crown Rice Dream Rice Nog the most disgusting, though quite surprisingly, Lucerne eggnog did quite poorly. I’m not sure how Rice Nog would compare with Silk Soy Nog (last year’s loser), but they’re both pretty foul.

Losers: Lucerne and Rice Dream

One of the funniest things about Rice Dream was a little warning label that was on the side. I took a picture, but Kelson’s is much better, and I won’t ruin the surprise.

Anywho, it was a good year, and I’m looking forward to next year’s tasting!