Vegan Nog Tasting

I don't know how these ideas come to me.... I spend too much time walking around Mother's Market I guess...

If you are a big dairy/eggnog drinker, you probably won't be too impressed by any of these, they really are a class all their own. You just can't replicate a drink whose main ingredients are cream, egg and milk with anything else. 

Truth be told, I have never been a big Eggnog fan. I never liked the consistency, I prefer to eat my ice cream. Now that I am dairy-free, Eggnog is not something that I particularly miss.

So for me, these were all an improvement over the original product. 

The history of non-dairy eggnogs goes back to at least 1899 when Almeda Lambert, in her Guide for Nut Cookery, gave a recipe for "Egg Nog" made using coconut cream, eggs, and sugar. Maybe next year, I'll whip up a batch.

My mom was the other judge in this very official, and quite pricey, quest for the best non-dairy nog! She was a good judge because she still consumes lots of dairy and so had a different view point.

The Criteria

 So we looked for packaged eggnog that offered the most natural-tasting flavor, richness without gumminess, thick but still drinkable, balanced spicing, and no strange off-flavors or aftertaste.

The Contenders

SO Delicious Coconut Nog 

Rice Dream Rice Nog

Silk Soy Holiday Nog

SO Delicious Mint Chocolate Coconut Nog

SO Delicious Pumpkin Spice Coconut Nog

Califia Almond Nog

Califia Pumpkin Spice Latte

Coconut Nog

Creamy and rich but no real spice flavor. Greatly improved when we added a bit of Nutmeg and paired it with ginger snap cookies! Finished smooth and left me wanting more.

Mint Chocolate Coconut Nog

The perfect amount of chocolate taste! Not fake or sweet, true cocoa flavor. Little to no mint. Thick and creamy texture. Not a nog at all, so it is out of the running but still worth the purchase!

SO Delicious Pumpkin Spice Nog

I had the highest expectations for this, pumpkin spice and nog! Must be amazing! But it was not. It tasted like the color orange, very weird. It got points for creaminess but not much else. 

Silk Soy

Again, rather bland tasting. Full bodied but not too thick. Needed a little bit of Nutmeg to really bring out the flavor but was the most like traditional Egg Nog. Almost the winner, until the weird soy-tang after taste.

Rice Nog

Over all, no real flavor. Very thin texture and tasted like rice milk with a little flavoring in it. Used this to make the pancakes because it has the highest fat content and I didn't really want to finish drinking it.

Califia Almond Nog

Blah! Tasteless and unimpressive. It tasted like you left a carton of almond milk in your car on a warm summer day and let it sour. Almost want to get and get my money back.

Califia Pumpkin Spice Latte

The biggest disappointment because I was the most excited about this!!! Every thing good in this world; coffee, almond milk, nog, pumpkin spice! But it just tasted like burnt pumpkin pie! Gross!

THE WINNER IS.......

SO DELICIOUS COCONUT NOG!

Add your own Nutmeg (and maybe some brandy...) and you have a wonderfully rich and beautifully thick cup of joy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Enjoy!