What do you drink advocaat with?

Neat, advocaat goes in a wide small glass or a cup with a spoon on the side, because with at least 140 grams of egg yolk per litre the liqueur is too thick to drink.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 sets those 140 grams as the lower limit for category 39. Producers that go well above it make a liqueur that clings to the spoon.

A dollop of whipped cream on top is the best-known way in the Netherlands. Choose a cup or a wide glass, because in a narrow glass the spoon will not go in properly.

You dilute it with something cold or something warm: lemon soda, orange juice or coffee turn thick advocaat into a drink you drink from a glass.

You decide the ratio yourself. Start with as much advocaat as mixer, stir well and top up until the drink runs out of the bottle instead of dropping out.

There are also advocaat that the producer already delivers ready to pour. The label then carries a word such as thin or pourable. You do not need to lengthen those bottles.

Warm is possible: in the Italian Alps egg liqueur with brandy goes into the glass hot, topped with cold whipped cream, under the name bombardino.

Fine Dining Lovers places the origin in the seventies at the mountain hut Mottolino in Livigno in the Alta Valtellina. The glass goes to the table hot and the whipped cream goes over it cold.

Ordinary coffee works too. Warmth makes the liqueur thinner, so that it can be stirred through the coffee instead of lying on the bottom.

An opened bottle of advocaat belongs in the fridge, which the Voedingscentrum advises at 4 degrees, with the cap on tight.

Advocaat consists largely of egg yolk and sugar. The Voedingscentrum writes that products spoil less quickly at 4 degrees and that bacteria hardly grow there.

Also check the label. The producer puts the storage advice and the shelf life after opening on it, and that advice takes precedence over any rule of thumb.

According to the Trimbos Institute, a standard glass of spirits is 35 millilitres and contains about 10 grams of pure alcohol.

Advocaat, at a minimum of 14 percent alcohol, is lower than the 35 percent that calculation assumes, so the same small glass of advocaat contains less pure alcohol than a small glass of jenever or whisky.

Verstrekken blijft gebonden aan artikel 20 van de Alcoholwet: geen alcoholhoudende drank aan iemand van wie niet is vastgesteld dat hij 18 jaar is. NIX18.