I used to work in a dairy bottling plant and there is actually a horrifying amount of truth in life here. You see, while a small artisan-type plant might do things the old fashioned way, big name brands have too much production volume for that.
The milk fat tanker arrives daily from wherever the cows actually are, with the ‘milk’ dehydrated to the point that if it had any less moisture they’d be unable to get it out of the tanker even with a high pressure pump. They then mix filtered water with it to make the various grades — fat free (actually 0.5%), 1%, 2%, half & half, etc. They get a weekly tanker of corn syrup concentrated enough to etch concrete (and burn right through exposed skin).
What does this have to do with eggnog, you ask? Well, the eggnog mix comes in these sealed 5 gallon white plastic buckets. It’s a sludge-like stuff, like very thick pudding. And those buckets require no refrigeration whatsoever, despite containing eggs. They typically arrived some time in late September or early October, and sat on the end of the loading dock, often through very warm weather, until December came around and it was time to mix them with milk.
Tl;Dr: Eggnog actually has a longer shelf life than Twinkies do.
I used to work in a dairy bottling plant and there is actually a horrifying amount of truth in life here. You see, while a small artisan-type plant might do things the old fashioned way, big name brands have too much production volume for that.
The milk fat tanker arrives daily from wherever the cows actually are, with the ‘milk’ dehydrated to the point that if it had any less moisture they’d be unable to get it out of the tanker even with a high pressure pump. They then mix filtered water with it to make the various grades — fat free (actually 0.5%), 1%, 2%, half & half, etc. They get a weekly tanker of corn syrup concentrated enough to etch concrete (and burn right through exposed skin).
What does this have to do with eggnog, you ask? Well, the eggnog mix comes in these sealed 5 gallon white plastic buckets. It’s a sludge-like stuff, like very thick pudding. And those buckets require no refrigeration whatsoever, despite containing eggs. They typically arrived some time in late September or early October, and sat on the end of the loading dock, often through very warm weather, until December came around and it was time to mix them with milk.
Tl;Dr: Eggnog actually has a longer shelf life than Twinkies do.