9 Eggnog Nonalcoholic Drinks – Flip and More

Eggnog and Flip Brief History

Eggnog nonalcoholic drinks, as well as the Flip family of drinks, are typically associated with alcoholic beverages; in this recipe collection, I decided to include only alcohol-free versions for two simple reasons:

1. The nonalcoholic recipe can usually be easily converted to an alcohol one by simply adding the liquor of choice.
2. Not all people drink alcohol, and the nonalcoholic options allow them to have more beverage options.

I’m sure almost everyone is familiar with eggnog and the “right time of season” to have one, but what is Flip?
Unless you are a bartender, most people are unfamiliar with this drink family and the difference between Eggnog and Flip. So, I included a brief history of both drinks and their main differences.

Eggnog or egg milk punch is made with eggs, milk, and sweetener. With so many homemade recipes, the rest of the ingredients are up to a person’s choice; it can be served hot or cold.

In Flip, milk and dairy products are not included in the recipes.

The origins of eggnog are believed to be somewhere around the 13th century, as a drink known as posset ( a famous British hot drink made of milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced) was also used as a cold remedy. It is unclear when it was created and where the name came from.

The earliest mention of posset^ I was able to find was in a couple of cooking books from 1420-1450 AD, and the actual word used in one of the recipes was poshotte, which was then referred to as posset, and the word itself most likely originated from posenet – a small pot for cooking.

There are two more posset/possate references from the mid-1400s, in J. Russel’s Boke of Nurture, and one more 200 years later in the second edition from Sir Kenelm Digby’s The Closet (London: 1671)

One of the standard mixtures was posset, made with eggs, figs, and ale. Around the 16th century, it evolved into a dessert made with cream, sugar, and usually lemons.
If you are interested in making the dessert and want to make 17th-century recipes, check out this book from 1660, The Accomplisht Cook.

The posset looked like something between drinks and dessert, with a thick gruel layer on top, created by adding bread or biscuits. It was served in special posset cups, teapot-shaped, with two handles, similar to today’s toddler sippy cups. The spout allowed the liquid to be separated from the thick layer, which was eaten with a spoon.

By the 18th century, eggnog was already known in America. People had more access to milk, eggs, and cheap and not-so-heavy-taxed rum. Later, it became associated with the winter Holidays.
I was not able to find any reference to eggnog in British literature. It appears the name eggnog has an American origin, most likely based on egg and nog( an old English name for a type of strong beer), as initially, the ale was part of the posset recipes.

One of the most famous “promoters” of eggnog in the 18th century was George Washington, to whom many attribute the following heavy alcohol eggnog recipe.

The recipe sounds great, and I’m sure it tastes delicious, but according to the Farmer’s Almanac, the recipe’s timing doesn’t add up.
The eggnog recipe is a vintage recipe; it originated in the 19th century, and George Washington (1732–99) lived in the 18th century.
According to the librarians at Mount Vernon, “…no eggnog recipe has been definitively linked to Washington”. 

Here is a recipe for 1-2 people posted on the Mount Vernon Estate website.

At the beginning of the 19th century, eggnog’s popularity, especially around Christmas time, was probably best manifested in the 1826 Christmas Eggnog Riot at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York.

To deal with increased alcohol overconsumption by the cadets, it was announced that the eggnog served at the Christmas party would be served alcohol-free, “No Eggnog for you,” to paraphrase a famous TV show character.

The cadets were “a little bit” disappointed, so they decided to remedy this problem by smuggling whiskey two days before that. The party started around 10 pm on the 24th at the North Barracks, and as it progressed, more cadets joined, and more whiskey was smuggled.
After consuming enough alcohol-laden eggnog, arguments and fights, they have led to a riot that lasted for almost two days, with 20 cadets being court marshalled.

As time passed, and with the invention of refrigeration and the implementation of pasteurization, serving cold eggnogs without going through a traditional cooking process became safer.

Nowadays, consumers have myriad milk choices (dairy milk, almond, soy, oat, rice “milk,” or Ripple – made with yellow peas). Most of them have lower fat content than the milk in the past or have no fat at all, so if one wants to recreate the eggnog of the past, they most likely will not achieve the same taste.
One option will be to add more cream, butter, and ghee or go to a local farm for non-pasteurized milk; on a side note, I grew up drinking milk bought directly from a farm that tasted delicious.

Flip

One of the first mentions of the Flip was in 1695 in William Congreve’s society farce Love for Love and used to describe a mixture of beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron –loggerhead and later toddy rod, the iron caused the drink to froth or flipping, leading to the Flip name.

In 1721 flip^ was mentioned in Nathan Bailey’s An Universal Etymological English Dictionary and defined as a “Sailor’s drink.” It was popular on both sides of the Atlantic, and one of the George Washington regularly enjoyed drinks.

In the beginning, the eggs were not part of the recipes; they were introduced later as an addition to or as an ale replacement. As the ingredients changed, one thing stayed the same: it was always hot, mainly due to refrigeration and food safety concerns.
That doesn’t mean cold^ ones were never made, but using fresh, unpasteurized eggs would’ve led to potential health issues like salmonella.
Currently, Flip drinks are usually served cold because all of the eggs sold in the USA and Canada stores are pasteurized, but regardless of that, be careful handling raw eggs.

As we can see, both Eggnog and Flip use eggs in their respective recipes, but there is one main difference by which we can set them apart: Eggnog usually is made with milk or milk byproducts, while Flip milk products are not part of the recipe.

Since we know the difference between eggnog and Flip, let’s look at some Eggnog recipes that don’t cause riots, both the usual and the not-so-typical ones.

Eggnog Recipes

The Eggnog and Flip recipes are for 2 people.

Milk Eggnog

2 eggs
2 oz sugar syrup
7 oz milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Mix and blend the ingredients with a shaker or mixer. Serve in highball cups sprinkled with grated nutmeg.
Note: Instead of sugar, use 2 tbsp of honey. This is a base recipe for many other egg drinks. Milk can be substituted with juice or tea.

Apple and Cherry Eggnog

2 eggs
2oz of cherry syrup
2 oz of apple juice
4 oz of milk
Mix and beat with a mixer. Serve in highball cups with ice and a straw.

Apple and Orange Eggnog

2 egg yolks
1 tbsp honey
4 oz orange juice
4 oz apple juice
2 tbsp ground walnuts
Beat the yolk and honey with a mixer until foamy. Add the juices and nuts without stopping to stir. Serve in highball glasses with ice.

Banana Eggnog

2 egg
1 1/2 oz sugar syrup
1 banana
3 oz ml milk
Blend the eggs and sugar syrup until foamy. Cut the peeled banana into thin slices, add it to the mixture with the milk, and blend again. Serve in highball cups with ice and a teaspoon.
Note: Optional – add 2 oz of pineapple juice to the mixture, or substitute the banana with 4 oz of pineapple juice.

Kefir Eggnog

2 egg yolks
2 oz sugar syrup
1 cup kefir
nutmeg
Beat the yolks with the sugar syrup until foamy, add the kefir, and mix well. Sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg.

Mocha Eggs

2 egg yolks
1 1/2 oz simple syrup
3 oz hot chocolate
3 oz cold black coffee
3 1/2 oz fresh milk
Beat the yolks with the sugar syrup to a froth. Add the coffee and hot chocolate. Then, slowly pour the milk in and stir.
Top with whipped cream – optional.

Peach Eggnog

2 eggs
1 1/2 oz sugar syrup
2 oz peach nectar
5 oz milk
Mix and beat the ingredients with a mixer. It can be decorated with whipped cream.

Raspberry Eggnog

2 egg yolks
5 oz milk
100 g raspberry jam or 2 oz of raspberry syrup
whipped cream – optional
Mix and beat with a mixer. Serve in highball cups with ice and a straw. Top with whipped cream

Walnut Eggnog

2 cups milk
1/2 cup finely ground walnuts
3 tbsp honey
1-2 egg yolks
vanilla
1/2 cup crushed ice

Beat the yolks into a smooth cream with honey. Add vanilla and walnuts, and finally, pour in a thin stream and, with constant stirring, milk. Serve in wide glasses with a bit of ice on the bottom.

Flip Recipes

Apple Flip

1 glass of apple juice
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 egg
The juice and sugar are heated to 50 degrees Celsius. The egg is beaten and added to the hot liquid with constant stirring (if the juice is hotter than 50 degrees, the egg will cross).

Apple Flip – Cold

2 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
2 cups of apple juice
Beat the yolks and sugar or honey with a mixer until foamy; add the juice and mix well.

Apple Cinamon

2 cups apple juice
1/2 cup water
1 clove
a pinch of ground cinnamon,
a few lemon and orange peels
sugar
1 egg
Heat the juice, water, and spices until boiling. Then, cool it to 50 degrees Celsius and add the beaten egg, stirring constantly.
It can be served hot or chill and served cold.

Orange Vanilla

2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs – separate yolks and egg whites
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Mix the juices. Heat together in a water bath with sugar and the beaten yolk, stirring until the mixture thickens. After cooling, add the egg whites and beat them to foam with powdered sugar. Shake and serve in cocktail glasses with a stool.

Prairie Oyster Cocktail

2 egg yolks
1 oz lemon juice
2 teaspoons ketchup
Two teaspoons of Worcester sauce
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce
Coat the inside of the cups with olive oil, pouring the rest. Pour the squeezed fresh lemon juice. Add the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, then stir with a long-handled teaspoon. Add the whole egg yolks and season with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce to taste.
Note: This refreshing cocktail is recommended to drink in the morning after heavy alcoholic dinners.
I placed the drinks under the Flip family because the eggs were part of the recipe.

Pineapple Pomegranate

2 egg yolks
2 lemons
2 oranges
8 ice cubes
2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
3 oz pineapple juice
2 lemon slices
Mix the yolks and freshly squeezed juice of oranges and lemons in a shaker or blender. Add the pineapple juice, pomegranate syrup, and ice and blend for 30 seconds. The cocktail is poured through a strainer into highball glasses and decorated with a slice of lemon.

Passion Flip

1 grapefruit
1 orange
1 lemon
1 egg yolk
2 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz passion fruit syrup
a few ice cubes
slices of orange, pineapple, lemon, and mango
Squeeze the juice from the fruits. Blend everything well for 30 seconds and pour through a strainer into highball glasses.
Decorate with slices of fruit.

Inga Flip

5 oz of orange juice
1 3/4 oz of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of garlic juice,
7 oz of almond milk
Mix the juices, stir and add the almond milk. Serve immediately; it can be sweetened with honey.
Note: It is not technically flip, but the garlic juice part of the recipe deserves to be mentioned.

Almond Milk Mocktails

Apricot Almond

7 oz of apricot juice
7 oz of almond milk
Mix well. Serve immediately

Lemon Almond

2 oz of lemon juice
12 oz of almond milk
Mix, mix well. Serve immediately.

Orange Almond

7 oz of orange juice
7 oz of almond milk
Mix, mix well. Serve immediately.

Plum, Cherry, and Almond

3 oz of plum juice
3 oz of cherry juice
7 oz of almond milk
Mix the juices and add the almond milk. Stir and serve chilled in highball glasses.

Strawberry Almond

3 oz of strawberry juice
10 oz of almond milk
Mix well and consume immediately.

Veggie Almond

5 oz of tomato juice
1 3/4 oz of cauliflower juice
200 ml of almond milk
Mix well, and drink immediately

Feature image by Aleisha Kalina on Unsplash