I compared Martha Stewart's eggnog to my mom's coquito. The best holiday drink is the one that doesn't take 2 days to make.

I immediately didn't love how time-consuming Stewart's recipe would be. Unlike coquito, which you drink right after making, Stewart's eggnog process involves preparing most of the ingredients a day before serving to allow the flavors to "meld."

The ingredients it calls for are:

• 6 large eggs

• ¾ cup of superfine sugar

• 2 cups of whole milk

• 3 cups of heavy cream, plus more for garnish

• ½ cup of bourbon

• ¼ cup of dark rum

• ¼ cup of cognac

• Freshly grated nutmeg

I'm not a huge fan of mixing different alcohols, so I decided to focus on bourbon. To supplement the missing rum and cognac, I upped the content of bourbon to a whole cup.

Accidentally leaving a few drops of yolk in the whites meant that any attempt to whip them until stiff peaks formed was futile.

I only realized my mistake the following day when it came time to beat the whites. Roughly half an hour in, all I had to account for was a very sore arm and a lot of confusion. Turning to Google in search of advice, I came across a Bon Appétit article explaining that the smallest trace of yolk in egg whites can be disastrous if you are trying to whip them.

Knowing my attempt to whip the original batch of egg whites was near impossible, I decided to throw in the towel and start again.

Take it from me and be super careful during this step if you want to avoid this annoying stumbling block.

This step was simple enough, although no matter how hard I tried, my egg yolks didn't seem to get significantly paler as I whipped them. I chalked it up to buying a good set of fresh eggs, which I was determined to do since the recipe does involve me consuming them raw.

Eating or drinking raw eggs can be considered dangerous. As Business Insider previously reported, consuming raw eggs carries the risk of contracting salmonella.

Stewart's recipe does advise people to use the "freshest eggs" they can find if they decide to try making her eggnog.

Adding the milk turned the yellowish mixture much paler, which made it look super similar to coquito.

Following Stewart's recipe, I poured in two cups of the cream and saved the last to turn into whipped cream that would be used to thicken up the eggnog right before serving.

As mentioned, the mixture at this point started to look more and more like my mom's coquito, although it was a lot less thick since coquito uses condensed, evaporated, and coconut milk rather than heavy cream and whole milk.

I'm not big into bourbon, so I followed Stewart's recommendation and bought a bottle of Maker's Mark to spike my eggnog with.

Instead of using the ½ cup the recipe originally called for, I went for a full cup to account for the missing portions of rum and cognac.

Part of the fun of making coquito is that the spices involved in the process — cinnamon and clove — are so pungent and rich that they quite literally make your kitchen smell like Christmas.

I felt like that was lacking with Stewart's recipe. At this stage, the eggnog smelled faintly of eggs, booze, and not much else. I also wondered how those flavors would be balanced with the small amount of sugar that the recipe called for.

I poured the eggnog into a container with a lid and left it in the fridge overnight, as Stewart's recipe instructs.

If you have an electric mixer, I'd recommend using it to whip the egg whites because even when there isn't any yolk impeding the process, it takes at least 15 minutes of whisking to get stiff peaks.

When the egg whites finally started to thicken up, I couldn't help but notice at this step how gray they were, which wasn't exactly appetizing. According to several food blogs, like The Milk and Honey Bakery, the off-looking color of the egg whites was likely caused by the aluminum bowl I used to beat them in.

To avoid having gray whites like me, try using a bowl made from stainless steel or glass.

The gray lumps of egg white broke down bit by bit but didn't "fold" seamlessly into the rest of the mixture like I thought they would.

In the end, the mixture looked frothier than I'd anticipated. It didn't look as if the egg whites were blending with the rest of the liquid.

This took far less time than whipping the egg whites. Within five minutes of whisking, the cup of heavy cream went from liquid to solid.

That said, I'd still recommend using an electric mixer if you have one handy and you want to avoid an unnecessary arm workout.

Like the egg whites, Stewart's instructions call for the whipped cream to be folded into the eggnog. She gives the option to save half of the cream to be added on top, which I opted for.

Nevertheless, the recipe makes it sound like the cream will merge with the rest of the ingredients relatively easily, but I found that wasn't the case.

As much as I tried to get a smooth mixture, I still discovered lumps of whipped cream rising to the surface, which, again, did not make it look super appetizing.

Stewart's recipe calls for fresh nutmeg, and you can use a grater to sprinkle it onto the drink as a final garnish. I couldn't find fresh nutmeg in my local grocery store, so I was forced to use ground nutmeg.

Once I'd given the beverage a good dusting of nutmeg, I was pretty pleased with its appearance. At a glance, especially with the addition of the whipped cream on top, it looked pretty delectable. But I was keen to find out how it tasted, and whether it was any competition for my mom's coquito.

Oh boy, where do I begin? For starters, this recipe made me realize I am not a fan of nutmeg. The smell of the spice is tolerable, but when I actually tasted it, the flavor reminded me more of soap than anything else.

Nutmeg aside, I found the drink itself to be lacking for several reasons. First, the texture wasn't consistent, in my experience — in one sip, I got a mouthful of liquid, frothy egg whites (which had inexplicably risen to the top of the cup), and a gulp of whipped cream. Flavor-wise, the beverage was also missing a lot of sweetness, which I think is needed to balance out all of the booze and eggs.

To be fair, the eggnog might have tasted differently if I'd added the portions of cognac and dark rum Stewart's recipe calls for. But I'm not a fan of mixing different types of alcohol, so I don't think that would've changed my opinion.

Meanwhile, coquito has none of the issues I found with the eggnog. For one, it's mixed using a blender, ensuring that all of the different ingredients are well incorporated. The condensed milk, cinnamon, and clove used in coquito also greatly mask the taste of the raw egg.

My biggest gripe with this eggnog, though, has to be how much effort Stewart's recipe requires. Let's be honest, the holidays can be stressful enough without having to spend two days making a drink.

So, as much as I admire Stewart as a chef and a pop-culture icon, my verdict is clear: My mom's coquito is the winner.