Egg-nog and Christmas

[Ornery_Bob]

In my experience, egg-nog is associated exclusively with Christmas and the holiday season. I suspect you would have a tough time even finding it in my local supermarket at other times of year. So how did egg-nog come to be associated with Christmas?

[Kimstu]

Eggnog didn’t used to be an exclusively Christmas drink:

The drink crossed the Atlantic to the British colonies during the 18th century. Since brandy and wine were heavily taxed, rum from the Triangular Trade with the Caribbean was a cost-effective substitute. The inexpensive liquor, coupled with plentiful farm and dairy products, helped the drink become very popular in America. When the supply of rum to the newly founded United States was reduced as a consequence of the American Revolutionary War, Americans turned to domestic whiskey, and eventually bourbon in particular, as a substitute.

Isaac Weld, Junior, in his book Travels Through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 (published in 1800) wrote: “The American travellers, before they pursued their journey, took a hearty draught each, according to custom, of egg-nog, a mixture composed of new milk, eggs, rum, and sugar, beat up together;…”

The Eggnog Riot occurred at the United States Military Academy on 23–25 December 1826. Whiskey was smuggled into the barracks to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party. The incident resulted in the court-martialing of twenty cadets and one enlisted soldier.

AFAICT, as the advent of cleaner water supplies made it less important for sanitary purposes to have some alcohol content in everything you drank, sweet confections like eggnog shifted from breakfast items to party drinks.

Eggnog, in the 1800s was nearly always made in large quantities and nearly always used as a social drink. It was commonly served at holiday parties and it was noted by an English visitor in 1866, “Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew egg nogg for all comers; everybody calls on everybody else; and each call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging…It is made cold and is drunk cold and is to be commended.”

I’m going to guess that eggnog remained more of a winter party drink simply because rich creamy drinks are both more appealing and less likely to spoil in cold weather than in hot.

[skdo23]

@Ornery_Bob

So how did egg-nog come to be associated with Christmas?

Because the government takes it away after the Christmas season is over.

[Kimstu]

A 2011 article answers the OP’s question.

[…] Although associated with the holidays, eggnog doesn’t need to be seasonal. Dairy plants could produce small batches of eggnog off-season for hard-core nogheads, but they don’t because it’s not cost-effective. Even a small run involves processing the ingredients, cleaning the machinery out, and updating the labels and packaging. It also takes up space on delivery trucks, and grocers need to figure out where to put it in on the shelves. In other words, off-season eggnog is a big hassle, and would appropriate resources from products that dairy makers know will sell—for example, white milk and chocolate milk, which have consistent demand throughout the year.

There is a secondary predictor of eggnog demand: the weather. Manufacturers have noticed that the colder it is, the more eggnog people buy. […] And even within a particular cold-climate market, dairy makers say that sales plunge when the mercury rises.

In spite of all the above, some dairy plants actually do produce eggnog outside of the traditional holiday season. Since the 1990s, Dean Foods has produced an Easter-themed eggnog in a few markets leading up to the springtime holiday. It turns a small profit, but Easter ’nog never sells as well as the more common Christmas variety, and makes up only a few percent of the total yearly sales.

[Ornery_Bob]

Thanks, Kimstu.

So at this point in time, it’s become a tautology. We only have egg-nog at Christmas, because they only make it at Christmas and they only make it at Christmas because we only buy it at Christmas.

The weather thing seems backwards in that egg-nog is usually served cold, but it’s also a heavy drink and calorie dense, which seems to go well with bracing yourself against cold weather.

[Jackmannii]

Ain’t no hyphen in eggnog.

[aruvqan]

We make it all year around - it is seriously simple to make [egg, milk, sweetening, spices. Alcohol optional.] Who really needs to buy it?

[Clark_Cello]

If eggnog were available year-round I would weigh 300 pounds.

[Colibri]

@skdo23

Because the government takes it away after the Christmas season is over.

Moderator Note

skdo23, let’s avoid political jabs in General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Colibri]

Since this is about a drink, let’s move it to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[aruvqan]

@Clark_Cello

If eggnog were available year-round I would weigh 300 pounds.

Diabetic, I make it with splenda. Sugar is not a texturizer in this food, so it does not need to be a component [like it does in proper ice cream, unless you add lots of texturizers like carageenan and guar gums] the texture comes from the beaten whole eggs.

[skdo23]

@Colibri

Moderator Note

skdo23, let’s avoid political jabs in General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

It was a *Simpsons* reference.

[bump]

@aruvqan

We make it all year around - it is seriously simple to make [egg, milk, sweetening, spices. Alcohol optional.] Who really needs to buy it?

Probably the same people who buy other bottled drink mixes. My guess is that they’re either extremely lazy or fairly ignorant, because very few of these drinks really take much in the way of weird ingredients (save maybe the Mai-Tai (orgeat) and Hurricane(passion fruit juice/nectar)).

[Omega_Glory]

The homemade kind doesn’t taste the same as the store-bought kind. The latter is better.

[Rigamarole]

@skdo23

Because the government takes it away after the Christmas season is over.

Damnit, Obamacare!