The Best Type Of Alcohol To Use For Traditional Eggnog

'Tis the season for eggnog to start hitting the shelves again. Many families have their own traditions revolving around the sweet, spiced seasonal drink, whether serving it with booze or straight or adding it to foods such as pumpkin pie. For the spiked eggnog lovers among us, there are many kinds of alcohol that can go well in the drink, but those looking for the most traditional cup of eggnog possible should reach for brandy — specifically, cognac.

Just how traditional is this? A recipe for hospital patients in St. Louis published in 1883 called for adding 4 tablespoons of brandy to a sweetened mixture of egg and milk, topped with grated nutmeg. Cognac's warm, fruity burn nestles snugly within the flavor profile of eggnog's creamy richness, though the sweetness added runs the risk of tipping the scales into cloying if you're not careful.

If you have a loud and proud sweet tooth, cognac and eggnog may be the perfect combination for you, but if you need to balance the sweetness out a bit, many places, including Costco's Kirkland Signature eggnog, use a mix of brandy, whiskey, and spiced rum. The bite of whiskey tempers the sweetness of the eggnog and brandy mixture. Bushmills Black Bush is one of the best whiskeys to add to eggnog for those opting for a less sweet holiday drink.

Eggnog's history in America is as rich as its flavor. It is said to owe its origin to the medieval posset, a 14th century European punch that featured warm milk, spices, eggs, figs, and wine or beer. By the 1600s, it had started to take on the form we're now more familiar with. A recipe from London in 1671 calls for cream, eggs, sugar, sherry, and spices such as mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

When eggnog came to America, brandy was a popular inclusion among the wealthy, but rum was cheaper, owing to the closeness of the Caribbean rum makers. It was here that eggnog entered American political history. George Washington had his own recipe that would be served to guests at his home in Mount Vernon and used a whopping 12 eggs. Though he may have discovered his taste for the drink thanks to a freed slave named Cato Alexander, who moved to New York City and opened Cato's, a bar that catered to the city's powerful, including Washington. Eggnog was one of the drinks Cato's was best known for.

President James Madison served eggnog to celebrate the end of the War of 1812. Barely more than a decade later, on Christmas morning, 1826, eggnog was said to be responsible for a riot at West Point Military Academy, as drunk cadets smuggled in the good stuff and proceeded to rebel against the school's strict "no alcohol" ordinance.