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Loquito Coquito offers a variety of coquito flavors from traditional to pistachio.
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Courtney and Tyrone Ramirez, owners of Loquito Coquito
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Loquito Coquito bottles the creamy, coconut-based beverage using a recipe from Tyrone's family.
“It’s a family recipe from his side of the family; he’s been making it since he was 6 years old,” Courtney Ramirez says of husband Tyrone’s recipe for coquito, a traditional Puerto Rican drink typically sipped during the holiday season.
The couple are rethinking how — and when — the creamy, coconut-based cocktail is enjoyed through their business, Loquito Coquito.
Launched in 2020, the business offers classic, flavored, and dairy- and alcohol-free versions of the cinnamon- and nutmeg-spiked concoction, in addition to pints of boozy coquito ice cream. Although Loquito Coquito has been steadily gaining traction since its inception, Courtney says her other half originally wasn’t on board to expand the company’s lineup.
“I brought the idea [of new flavors] up to my husband, and he was like, ‘No, we are going to keep it traditional and keep it to the roots of Puerto Rico,’ ” Courtney says.
But after repeated requests from friends and family for bottles of coquito, followed by experimentation and exploration with fun twists, Tyrone changed his mind.
“The first ones we did were Nutella, pistachio, and cookies and cream [flavors], and he fell in love,” Courtney says.
Originally from Ecuador, Tyrone, who is the mastermind behind bringing the recipe to the masses, moved to the U.S. as child and first began making coquito with his stepmother. By the age of 10, he was taking the lead and whipping up batches for his family around the holidays.
Similar to eggnog and made with coconut milk, coconut cream, evaporated and condensed milks, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then spiked with rum, the punch is traditionally shared around Christmas and New Year’s.
“We’ll have Puerto Ricans come up and say, 'It’s July, you’re selling coquito,’ and we say, ‘Yeah, we’re changing the platform of coquito, that you don’t have to wait to the holidays because with all the variety of flavors, we can enjoy it in every celebration year-round,” Courtney says.
Married for over a decade, the pair first began making coquito — which translates as "little coconut" from Spanish; Loquito Coquito means "crazy little coconut" — several years ago.
“When we were trying to decide the traditions we wanted to carry on with our own family, [Tyrone] made coquito,” Courtney says.
It was during the pandemic that the pair began to rethink their vision for the future and take the concept to the next level. After making appearances at farmers markets and hosting pop-ups at places such as Pepe’s, Chicken Fiesta and Lamarr Marie’s Gourmet Popcorn, Loquito Coquito has grown from something first shared with Bon Air residents via a neighborhood Facebook group and become a full-fledged beverage distribution gig for the pair, both of whom continue to work full-time jobs.
The parents of three introduced more additions to their coquito lineup this past summer. Aiming to create something refreshing that was reflective of the season, they originally sought out to make Puerto Rican frozen treats called limber but ran into obstacles.
"We wanted to make adult Popsicles but couldn’t get it to freeze, then decided, why not buy an ice cream machine?” Courtney says.
A cool and scoopable version of coquito proved to be successful, and the pair unveiled boozy strawberry, mango, pineapple, peach and passionfruit pints of ice cream. Other varieties have included mint chip, pumpkin, key lime, espresso, s’mores and Ukrop’s rainbow cookie. Loquito Coquito also offers 30-ounce bottles and flights of coquito as well as cookie butter coquito, and they recently introduced holiday boxes with coquito, glasses and various snacks.
Courtney says that although they can make nonalcoholic versions upon request, because they do not use preservatives, the shelf stability of the beverage decreases significantly without the presence of rum, from six months to just a week.
As for sharing coquito with the world, Courtney says she and her husband have enjoyed the journey.
"‘Every now and then you hear the story of someone who's drank it every year,” she says, “and it’s also great because most people do not know what it is, and it's fun explaining [that] to them and sharing that education of where it originated, and how we’re changing the game.”
