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Coquito

This is a magical blend of real coconuts, like 4 different types of sweetened milks, cinnablahblahblah, rum, rum, and more rum. Why is the rum gone? Because we made Coquito, Jack. 
Course Drinks
Cuisine Puerto Rican
Keyword Coquito
Servings 5 Liters
Author Los' Mom

Ingredients

Cinnamon Syrup

  • .5 cup - Ginger chunks peeled
  • 7-9 sticks - Cinnamon
  • 1 cup - Raisins
  • 1 tsp - Cinnamon ground
  • 2 cups - Water

Coconut Milk

  • 2 each - Coconuts cut into chunks
  • 6 cups - Water

Coquito

  • 2 each - Egg Yolks optional
  • 2 cans - Coconut Milk store bought
  • 1 can - Sweet Condensed Milk
  • 1 can - Evaporated Milk
  • 1 can - Cream of Coco
  • 1 cup - Cinnamon Syrup
  • 2.5 cups - Bacardi Rum or Coconut Bacardi

Instructions

For the Cinnamon Syrup

  • Put everything into a pot and bring it to a boil.
  • Lower the heat to med-high and let it reduce down to about 1 cup of liquid. 
  • Set aside to cool a bit.

For the Coconut Milk

  • Crack open the coconut. If you've never done so, be sure to find your local hispanic neighbor as it is in our blood to break down coconuts. Or, if your grocery store is awesome like ours, ask the produce guy if they can open it up for you. 
  • You want to separate the meat from the skin. Doesn't have to be completely separated, just the husk removed. 
  • Put coconut chunks and water into a heavy duty blender (probably not a daiquiri maker like my mom) and blend it until well blended.  
  • Get a strainer and a good size container and strain the coconut pulp from the water. 
  • Congrats, you just made your very own coconut milk. If you call this a secret ingredient, you wouldn't be wrong. 

For the actual Coquito

  • In a stand mixer, beat the egg yolks a bit.
  • While they're beating, strain the chunks out of the cinnamon syrup and SET ASIDE! You're going to need all that goodness. 
  • Temper the egg yolks with the warm cinnamon syrup. If you're afraid of tempering... you should be! Nah, seriously, don't freak out. Just slooooowly let the cinnamon syrup drizzle down the edge of the mixing bowl while the egg yolks are being beaten. 
  • Once the egg yolks have been tempered with the cinnamon syrup, add the sweetened condensed milk and blend.
  • Once blended, add all the other 49 cans to the bowl while mixing. 
  • After all the milks are in, taste for sweetness and cinnamon, add if needed. 
  • Add the rum and stir gently, as your mixer may be close to capacity.
  • Taste and add what you feel is missing. More rum? Sure! (I am not held responsible for any drunk texting during Christmas)

Bottling Up

  • When you go to bottle your coconut god blessed holy water, be sure to not forget the stuff you strained from the cinnamon mixture! I really hope you didn't throw that away...
  • Go ahead and line up your bottles and start plunking down the cinnamon sticks and the ginger and the raisins. Maybe get about a cup of goodness in each vessel. 

Notes

  • First off, you're probably wondering why so many cans of milk and not just the whole thing be fresh coconut milk? Elementary, my dear Watson. The various cans of milk all have a much thicker consistency than the fresh milk. So using the cans are going to give you the creaminess you're looking for in the drink. If you use primarily fresh, the end product will be way too watery. 
  • Speaking of the fresh milk, here's an important thing to look out for: The coconut milk you strain is - get this... - going to look like milk! There is a chance that the coconuts are bad for making coquito. If they are bad, you'll see the milk you strain become separated as in the solids will separate from the liquids and it will look broken. If you come across this, unfortunately you'll have to climb another tree to get different coconuts.
  • Nah, jk. But you'll have to scrap all that you just blended and get different coconuts. So my advice, buy a few coconuts from a few different grocery stores. That way if one is bad, you can try again with coconuts that you know are from a totally different source. 
  • I know you might be a little skeptical about the egg yolks being in there. First of all, don't be a baby. Second, it's totally fine. Just buy yourself fresh eggs that day if you're really that worried about it. Also, if you don't know how to test your eggs in water to see if they're good, then go ahead and check out this link right here. It's a method that I use all the time and it's probably saved my life once or twice. 
  • The egg yolks are going to give you that eggnog consistency, which is something you want from your coquito. 
  • Buuuuuuuuuuuuut if you really don't want to use them like for allergy purposes. Then I'll give you a pass and won't call you a baby. 
  • The reason why you're putting the Sweetened Condensed can first before the other cans, is because it's the creamiest of the bunch. So with that in there first, it's going to let everything else mix up even better, giving it a ponche feel, which is a totally different post. Love me some ponche!
  • If you taste the Coquito and need to add sweetness to it, add a bit more of cream of coconut. You don't want it super sweet though, so be mindful.
  • I was just kidding about step 8, don't go adding more rum you psycho. You'll water it all up and it will just be coconut cream flavored rum.
  • When storing, always keep the Coquito refrigerated, and in something that has a nice tight lid.
  • Those bottles you see in the pictures above are perfect. My mom picks them up from Ross/Marshalls/T.J. Max for about $1.99 each.