New Jersey’s weird claim to eggnog fame

Eggnog is allegedly popular enough in New Jersey around the holidays that one count
has 37,365,068 of these drinks being consumed in our state.

That’s more than six per person throughout the holidays.

Excuse me? You realize you’re asking me to drink eggs like I’m Rocky, right? When exactly am I fighting Apollo Creed?

With ingredients like eggs, milk, sugar, and maybe some vanilla extract and nutmeg I can get through maybe one of these thick drinks per holiday. If the host has gone through the effort to put eggnog together, I’ll take the ‘no thank you’ helping.

Even including brandy, rum, or bourbon isn’t enough to get me on board with having seconds. It will just help me get through my first and only.

As with most things, there’s always a Jersey connection. Here’s eggnog’s.

Egg nog has a New Jersey connection

While one form or another of this festive drink has been around for hundreds of years, it wasn’t always called eggnog.

As far back as the 13th Century, monks in Britain were drinking ale with raw eggs and figs and calling it “posset.” By the 17th Century, milk was also being mixed in and sherry became the usual alcohol.

Well-to-do aristocrats drank it because milk, eggs and sherry were in short supply at that time.

The drink eventually found its way to our colonies and then in the 18th century, in our newly formed nation, it was New Jersey that actually gave it its name. (Was Boost already taken?)

The first use of eggnog as a word to appear in print came in 1788 when the New Jersey Journal called it such. An article described a young man with an insatiable appetite as having “thirty raw eggs, a glass of eggnog, and another of brandy sling."

There you have it. It was New Jersey that coined the word “eggnog.” Good for us!

I’m still only having one.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.
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