Pistachio Coquito

5 from 2 votes

Pistachio Coquito is a creamy Puerto Rican holiday drink, blending coconut, pistachio, and a hint of almond. 🥥🍶💚🍸✨

Cook Time15

chill0

Total Time15

Course: beverages

Cuisine: Puerto Rican

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: servings

Calories: 512kcal

Making Spice Tea: Add water and selected spices to a small saucepot. Bring to a boil for 5 to 10 minutes.
2 cups water, 4 cinnamon sticks, 3 whole nutmeg, 6 cloves, 6 allspice, 3 anise star
Once boiling, cover and turn the heat off. Let steep while it cools completely.
Strain spices into a container. You may reserve for later use or measure the amount needed for the coquito.
Making pistachio paste: bring water to a roaring boil in a saucepot. Once boiling, add pistachios. Boil for 2 minutes.
water, 1 cup pistachios
After two minutes, shock the pistachios in an ice bath.
As the pistachios cool, start rubbing the skin off with your fingers.
In an empty pitcher or blender cup, add spice tea.
Followed by coconut milk.
2 cans coconut milk
And condensed milk.
1 can condensed milk
Continue by adding rum.
1 cup rum
Followed by pistachio paste and almond extract.
1 teaspoon almond extract
Blend until well incorporated—option to strain the mixture and blend again to ensure a silky smooth texture.

Pistachios: If available, use raw pistachios, roast them, and grind them into a paste. If raw is unavailable, like in my case, use roasted pistachios like Wonderful Pistachios shelled roasted pistachios. The next option is to buy the paste/butter already made, like Amoretti Pistachio Butter, a super concentrated mixture with coloring that will bring flavor and color to your coquito.

Plan: The spice tea and the pistachio butter take time to make. The spice tea must be at room temperature, and removing the pistachios' brown covering (optional) takes time. All is worth the effort, but make sure to prepare yourself. Also, if you make more than one batch or more batches in later days, prepare these items in bulk so that you do not have to repeat the process each time.

Ratios: How much rum do you like in your coquito? One cup of rum is a good start, especially if you don't want the rum to overpower the drink. You can make your coquito as strong as you would like. Even without rum, the combination of spices and milk is exceptionally delicious.