Eggnog // (or egg nog), historically also known (when alcoholic) as milk punch or egg milk punch, is a rich, chilled, sweetened, creamy dairy-based beverage traditionally made with milk and/or cream, sugar, whipped eggs (which gives it a frothy texture) and, in some contexts, distilled spirits such as brandy, rum or bourbon. The finished serving is often garnished with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg.  
Eggnog is traditionally consumed throughout Canada and the United States at Christmas every year, often from American Thanksgiving through the end of the Christmas season. During this period commercially prepared eggnog is sold in grocery stores in these countries. Eggnog is also often homemade. Distilled spirits are sometimes added to both commercially prepared eggnog and homemade eggnog. Eggnog or eggnog flavoring may also be used in other drinks, such as coffee (e.g. an "eggnog latte" espresso drink) and tea, or to dessert foods such as egg-custard puddings or eggnog-flavored ice cream.
Etymology and origins
The origins, etymology, and the ingredients used to make the original eggnog drink are debated. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, nog was "a kind of strong beer brewed in East Anglia". Alternatively, nog may stem from noggin, a Middle English term for a small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol. However, the British drink was also called an Egg Flip, from the practice of "flipping" (rapidly pouring) the mixture between two pitchers to mix it. One dictionary lists the word as being an Americanism invented in 1765-75.Babson College professor Frederick Douglass Opie "...wrote that the term is a combination of two colonial slang words — rum was referred to as grog and bartenders served it in small wooden mugs called noggins. The drink first became known as egg-n-grog and later as eggnog." Ben Zimmer, executive editor for vocabulary.com disputes the "egg-n-grog" theory as lacking proof; Zimmer states that the term "nog" may be related to the "...Scottish term nugg or nugged ale, meaning "ale warmed with a hot poker."
The first example of the term "eggnog" was in 1775, when Maryland clergyman and philologist Jonathan Boucher wrote a poem about the drink which was not published until 30 years after his death: "Fog-drams i' th' morn, or (better still) egg-nogg, / At night hot-suppings, and at mid-day, grogg, / My palate can regale..." The first printed use of the term was in 1788 in the New-Jersey Journal of March 26, which referred to a young man drinking a glass of eggnog.
Eggnog may have developed from posset, a medieval European beverage made with hot milk that was curdled with wine or ale and flavoured with spices. In the Middle Ages, posset was used as a cold and flu remedy. Posset was popular from medieval times to the 19th century. Eggs were added to some posset recipes; according to TIME magazine, by the "...13th century, monks were known to drink a posset with eggs and figs."
Eggnog "...seems to have been popular on both sides of the Atlantic at that time. In the American South, eggnog is made with bourbon. Eggnog is called "coquito" in Puerto Rico, where, rum and fresh coconut juice or coconut milk are used in its preparation. Mexican eggnog, also known as "rompope", was developed in Santa Clara. It differs from regular eggnog in its use of Mexican cinnamon and rum or grain alcohol. In Peru, eggnog is called "biblia con pisco", and it is made with a "Peruvian pomace brandy called pisco."
German eggnog, called "biersuppe", is made with beer. "Eierpunsch is a German version of eggnog made with white wine", eggs, sugar, cloves, tea, lemon or lime juice and cinnamon. Another recipe dating from 1904 calls for eggs, lemon juice, sugar, white wine, water and rum. In Iceland, eggnog "...is served hot as a dessert."
In Britain, the drink was popular mainly among the aristocracy. Milk, eggs, and sherry were foods of the wealthy, so eggnog was often used in toasts to prosperity and good health." Those who could get milk and eggs mixed it with brandy, Madeira or sherry to make a drink similar to mod