You’ll love this easy Vegan Coquito Recipe with a creamy, sweet rum coconut flavor that is perfect for celebrating Christmas with a tropical touch!
A coquito is a rum-based Puerto Rican cocktail with a creamy, sweet texture and tropical coconut flavor. It’s also known as the Puerto Rican version of eggnog, as it’s a traditional Christmas drink in Puerto Rico, just as eggnog is in the USA.
Unfortunately, the classic coquito recipe is not vegan as it’s made with evaporated milk. To make your own coquito recipe, you need to tweak the original recipe.
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Vegan Coquito Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can Coconut Condensed Milk - (11.2oz)
- 1 can Cream of Coconut - (13.5 oz) sweetened coconut cream, see note for unsweetened canned coconut cream option *
- 1 can Canned Coconut Milk - (13.5 oz)
- ½ cup Almond Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 cup Dark Rum or Spiced Rum - or 1 1/2 cup for strong cocktail * see notes for other options
Instructions
- In a blender, add all the ingredients sweetened condensed coconut milk, cream of coconut, coconut milk, almond milk rum, vanilla extract, and spices and blend on high speed until smooth – about 1 – 2 minutes.
- Chill the cocktail in the fridge in a sealed glass bottle or jug, for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Before serving, shake/stir. If too thick to your liking, thin with 2-4 tablespoons of extra almond milk, stir to combine, and serve.
- Serve in a glass with a stick of cinnamon and a pinch of ground cinnamon.
Notes
- 1 cup white rum
- 1/2 cup coconut rum
- 1/2 cup golden/dark rum
Nutrition
Ingredients and Substitutions
A vegan coquito is a dairy-free version of the classic coquito recipe. Since it’s dairy-free, it’s also perfect for anyone with lactose intolerance as it doesn’t include milk. All the ingredients you need to make a vegan version of a coquito cocktail recipe at home are:
- Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk – you will find this ingredient in a can next to condensed milk in most grocery stores. We recommend using Nature’s Charm’s condensed coconut milk.
- Cream Of Coconut – this is not the same as canned coconut cream. Cream of coconut is also found in a can, but it also contains sugar and thickeners that add flavor and texture to the drink. The best vegan brand for this recipe is Coco Lopez, a Puerto Rican brand that makes the cocktails perfect.
- Unsweetened Canned Coconut Milk – I prefer unsweetened, because it makes it easier to adjust the sweetness.
- Almond Milk – prefer unsweetened almond milk to avoid adding unnecessary sugar.
- Ground Cinnamon and Nutmeg – for classic winter flavors.
- Vanilla Extract – for taste.
- Shredded Coconut – this is optional, but I love the texture it adds to the cocktail.
- Rum – spiced rum or a combination of rums tastes better. See the note below on how to choose the best rum for coquito.
More Vegan Cocktails
For more vegan cocktails recipes, try some of the below:
mine immediately curdled. any idea how to get it back together? the flavor is wonderful.
I am sorry to hear that. There’s two options. Option 1 Blend: Pour the coquito back into a high-speed blender. Blend it on high for a minute or two until it is completely smooth and creamy. This is often all that is needed to re-emulsify the mixture.
Option 2, Strain: If blending doesn’t fully remove the small lumps (often solid pieces of coconut cream or spice remnants), strain the coquito through a fine-mesh sieve or a cheesecloth-lined funnel before bottling it.
This basically completely solidified in the fridge. Any ideas on how to make it liquid again?
Add some almond milk, it should get back to a liquid as it warms up!
Oh wow!!! This is a winning recipe!! Fabulous vegan coquito!! No dairy, and fantastic taste! Perfect consistency and flavor. Creamy, but not too creamy. Even my Puerto Rican friends agreed! They were shocked it was vegan! So hopefully they will start making it this way too! Thank you so much for your great recipe and I look forward to trying your other vegan cocktails! Ingredients easy to find at Walmart! The coco Lopez is in The cocktail supply aisle. The almond milk was a great addition for thinning it down a bit! Delicious! Thanks again!
What do I do with the raisins after I’ve infused my rum?
You can drained and keep them in the fridge in an airtight box to make vegan oatmeal raisins cookies
I’ll be making coquitos in a few weeks was wondering if I could substitute cream of coconut for real coconut cream syrup instead would like to know if it’s the same amount as the cream of coconut in the can? Thanks!!
Cream of coconut is very sweet but also has a creamy texture. I am not familiar with coconut cream syrup, so it is hard to recommend. I would add gradually taste, and adjust. Or try canned coconut cream and syrup
The flavor was really great. We had a problem though – When we blended everything, the coconut fat separated and floated to the top. It looked curdled (like little pieces) but it was the fat. We ended up straining it out and scooping it on the pie. None of the other commenters seemed to have this problem so I’m wondering if its something I did wrong. We followed the recipe pretty closely and used captain morgan spiced rum.
Yup this happened to me too. I strained it 3-4 times but it tasted amazing.
That’s interesting! this never happened to me ever, I am very wondering what happened and I am so sorry I can’t help more
This happened to us as well, although it may be because there were shortages so made do with a few substitutions, for example another can of cream of coconut for the condensed milk 🙂 Also did add more almond (soy) milk and maple syrup for our preferred consistency.
Ended up making it smoother by putting it in a warm water bath until the mixture was still cool but the fat had melted. We still strained it, but most of the fat had blended in. Perhaps due to the substitutions, but we could not chill it as the fat would separate once cooled to a certain temperature.
Never had regular coquito before but my Puerto Rican family said it tastes super close! I did not have a few ingredients because I was looking for options to use up the evaporated coconut milk I used for another recipe.
I ended up doing 1.5 cans of the evaporated coconut milk, 1/2 cup of macadamia nut milk (in place of almond milk) and 6oz. of flax seed milk (in place of the condensed coconut milk), 3tbsp maple syrup, with the vanilla and cinnamon. Set some aside for the kiddo. Then, I accidentally added vodka (Kirkland brand infused with the cinnamon sticks and raisins) instead of rum so I added an additional 3tbsp of maple syrup to sweeten it!
Thanks so much for this lovely feedback and also for sharing your idea to make it even better!
Delicious!!! I was wondering, how long does it last in the fridge? Thank you for this recipe ❤️
Probably 2-3 days if you didn’t add the alcohol yet. Cocktail with alcohol don’t store well because the alcohol separate from the liquid and form layer.
Holy sh**
This recipe is a must try. Reminds me of horchata. I thought 1 can of Coco Lopez cream of coconut might be a little too sweet for my taste, plus I took note of someone’s comment saying theirs came out too sweet. I followed the recipe but only used about 1/4 of the can thinking I’ll just add little by little until I get the perfect amount of sweetness. 1/4 of the can was perfect though 🙂
I also took the note that said to use 1 cup of white rum, 1/2 cup of dark rum, and 1/2 cup of coconut rum for better flavor. It did not disappoint.
Best of all, it’s vegan!
I will 100% be making this again. Thank you for sharing!!
Going to make this! I have everything! I didn’t see shredded coconut in the ingredient list or instructions. Did you blend in or just line the glass rim?
Just decorate the glass with it. You can add some in the blender if you like the gritty pieces of coconut but not everyone enjoy it. Enjoy the drink, XOXO Carine