Discover The Story
What is coquito?
A creamy, coconut-based holiday favorite from Puerto Rico, cherished for bringing families and friends together during Christmas celebrations. Traditionally made with rum, warm spices, and love, this non-alcoholic version is perfect for everyone to enjoy.
For an festive touch, sprinkle with cinnamon.
For a classic twist, add white rum.
For a warm hug, add to coffee.
Where It Began
A Tradition, Reimagined
Every Puerto Rican family has an idea of what coquito should taste like and how to make it. There is always a holiday throwdown about who made the best coquito (and the answer is usually “mine”). That’s part of what makes it special. Every recipe is a little different, passed down, adapted, and perfected over time.
In 2010, friends started asking me why I didn’t make coquito. I didn’t grow up around alcohol, so I didn’t inherit a recipe. I became curious about the traditional rum-based version and thought I’d give it a try. It became my thing. Instead of sharing holiday cookies, I gave them some of my coquito. I kept tweaking the recipe, making it from scratch, and perfecting it until it became something distinctly my own.
Then, in 2024, my lifestyle shift and the possibility of turning this tradition into a business began to converge.
I gave my friends, owners of Sabores Tapas Bar in Arlington, VA, my coquito holiday special that year. They immediately asked me if I could do a pop-up. While excited about this opportunity, there was one significant challenge: it couldn’t contain alcohol.
They were asking me to make an alcohol-free version that tasted every bit as good as the recipe I'd spent years perfecting, and I wasn’t sure I could replicate the flavor.
So I tried. And tried. And tried some more.
Taking out the rum changed a lot more than I expected. This non-alcoholic version of coquito had to taste like “mine,” but that wasn’t happening. After a couple of weeks of failed attempts, I thought I’d give it one last shot…I finally got it.
When I introduced the new recipe at Sabores, I finally got to watch people outside my circle experience it for the first time. Some grew up with coquito. Some had never heard of it. Some loved coconut. Others insisted they didn't.
Turns out everyone loved it, and the reaction kept being the same:
Wait – this doesn't have alcohol?
What began as a challenge became one of the things that makes CocoRiquito special. Today, CocoRiquito is “mine” and intentionally alcohol-free: rich, creamy, handcrafted, and made so that more people can share in the experience.
After all those years of perfecting the traditional rum-based coquito I discovered as an adult, taking the alcohol back out brought my story right back to where it began...
Home with a new tradition of my own.