Crema De Vie: The Ultimate Latin Holiday Party Aperitif

Are you looking for something new and exciting to integrate into your holiday celebrations this year. Why not try a Latin dessert drink that will surely have all your friends talking. Crema De Vie, which literally translates into cream of life, is a rich creamy after dinner drink that originated in Cuban culture. It’s sweet velvety taste is the perfect end to a meal, or cocktail for socializing with friends.

This recipe is very sweet, ideal for all those sweet tooth members in your families. This famous homemade aperitif is a staple for Cubans during the holidays; it is actually customary to give friends and families bottles of the aperitif as a sign of good will. New Year’s Eve is a great time to try the alcoholic beverage, if you don’t mind about 350 calories a glass. Be forewarned, this drink is addictive, and I am sure you will have more than just one glass.

Amazingly, Cubans are not the only culture to have this egg, alcohol drink as part of their holiday traditions. Known as rompope in Costa Rica and Mexico, ponche crema (Venezuela), biblia (Peru), coquito (Puerto Rico) and rompopo (Spain). The alcohol of choice in Central America and the Caribbean is, of course, rum for this egg, milk and sugar drink. Elsewhere, the drink is laced with cognac or even sherry. A version of this aperitif first hit North America for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

This traditional Cuban after dinner drink is made up of:

One can condensed milk
One can rum
one can simple sugar syrup (**)

(**)using the empy condensed milk can, mix:
Two cans white sugar
one can water
lemon rind
cinnamon stick

Boil until it becomes a syrup.
Let cool and discard cinnamon stick and lemon rinds.

Mix all ingredients in a bottle along with two egg yolks (whipped) and two or three large sticks of cinnamon.

Refrigerate for two or three days and it is ready to drink.

WARNING: It is SWEET and it can be habit forming (you just can’t put it down). Serve in shot glasses and sip. It is good anytime.

SAFE EGG YOLKS:
Heat 2 egg yolks and 1/4 cup of liquid from the recipe, add 1/2 tsp sugar in a small skillet over very low heat, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan constantly with a spatula. At the first sign of thickening, remove the pan from the heat, but continue stirring and dip the pan bottom in a larger pan of cold water to stop the cooking. Use in the recipe instead of raw yolks.

Destroying bacteria is a matter of both time and temperature. You do not even have to get the yolks to the salmonella instant-kill temperature of 160oF (71oC). Holding them at slightly lower temperatures for several minutes is just as effective. Yolks are pasteurized by holding them for 3.5 minutes at 140oF (60oC), which is not very hot- hot tap water is in this range. Eggs don’t scramble (cook) until about 180oF (82oC). So there is some margin here.

SOURCE: COOKWISE Cookbook- by Shirley O. Corriher-
page 195