Repeating Islands

Believe it or not, a competition was held this past Saturday at the Museo del Barrio to select the best coquito in New York. The drink, which The New York Times describes as “something like eggnog on a beach vacation,” is the quintessential Christmas drink in Puerto Rico. On Saturday . . .

. . . as a winter storm dumped buckets of snow on the city, some 200 people gathered Saturday night at Museo del Barrio to select the best coquito in New York. It was the eighth annual Coquito Masters contest, the culmination of weeks of preliminary contests held across New York by the International Coquito Federation . . .  

The drink is usually made with coconut and rum, along with nutmeg, cinnamon and various secret ingredients, sometimes egg yolks, sometimes condensed milk. It can be thick and creamy, light and spicy, boozy, mellow, sweet or tangy. Variations include chocolate, banana, amaretto and coffee.

Danisha Nazario, the third-place winner on Saturday, followed her father’s secret recipe, though without his consent: He keeps the recipe locked in a metal safe beneath his bed. “After begging for the recipe for years, my mom stole it for me,” Ms. Nazario said. “But I put a little twist on it.”

For Puerto Ricans, coquito is a taste of home, a link with previous generations and a means of preserving cultural identity and traditions. Michael Velazquez, one of the evening’s contestants, remembered watching his grandmother prepare her coquito every Christmas, along with roast pork and rice and beans. “I’m very proud that she taught me and that she learned it from her grandmother,” he said.

But Saturday night was not just a cultural celebration — it was also a fierce competition, complete with taunts, boasts and plenty of nerves, even if those were dulled by the rum. Last year’s winner, Zoraida Graziani, sized up the crowd, as the woman she defeated last year looked for redemption. . . .

After about an hour of tasting, the judges retreated upstairs to determine who would receive the trophy this year. The tension was as thick as a good glass of coquito.

After much deliberation, Ms. Quiñones reappeared to announce the results. And the winner was: Ms. Graziani of Tobyhanna, Pa.! She was the first person to win the Coquito Master title twice in a row, Ms. Quiñones said.

“I feel real good,” Ms. Graziani said as she beamed before the crowd and her husband passed out business cards advertising “Perfection in a Glass.”

For the New York Times article go to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/nyregion/21coquito.html

If you want to try your hand at coquito, here’s a recipe . . .

1 cup of condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup of Coco Lopez (or any other brand of coconut cream)
1 cup of white rum (Don Q is my favorite)
1 cup of water in which you have boiled three sticks of cinnamon (let it cool off)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 beaten egg yolks

Mix all the ingredients in a blender, except for the cinnamon water. Pour the cinnamon water and stir. Pour into a glass bottle and refrigerate. Shake before serving and sprinkle a bit of powdered cinnamon on top.