Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Kremas
Haiti's rich holiday drink: cream of coconut and sweetened milk spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, and vanilla, spiked with rum.
Haitian · easy · serves 8
prep 15 min · cook 0 min
~524 cal · 10g protein · 48g carbs · 27g fat · 5g fiber · 43g sugars · 21g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kremas (also spelled cremas or cremasse) is Haiti's holiday drink, poured at Christmas, New Year, and weddings and pressed on every guest. Thick, sweet, and heavily spiced, it is an eggless cousin of eggnog built on the tropical richness of coconut rather than custard.
Cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk form the base, loosened with evaporated milk, then flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, vanilla, and a little lime. The spirit is Haitian rum, and to a Haitian it should be Rhum Barbancourt or nothing. Everything is simply blended and bottled, then chilled so the flavours meld.
Silky and warming, kremas gets better after a day or two in the fridge. Because it is built on coconut it is not nut-free, but it uses no eggs at all, and a coconut-milk swap for the dairy makes a vegan version the sources themselves suggest.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1 can cream of coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup dark rum
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 star anise
2 tsp vanilla extract
from 1 lime lime zest
Instructions
1
Combine the cream of coconut, condensed milk, and evaporated milk in a blender and blend until smooth.
✎ Chef’s note
Cream of coconut is sweetened coconut cream, thicker than coconut milk; it is what gives kremas its body.
2
Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ground or steeped star anise, vanilla, and lime zest and blend again.
3
Pour in the rum and blend briefly just to combine.
4
Transfer to bottles and chill for at least a few hours, ideally overnight.
5
Serve cold in small glasses, shaking the bottle first, with a little grated nutmeg on top.
Ouest (Port-au-Prince) Christmas tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ouest (Port-au-Prince). Epis is made ahead and kept in the fridge: parsley, thyme, scallion, garlic, peppers and citrus blitzed into a green paste that starts nearly every pot. Pikliz is its opposite number, cabbage, carrot and scotch bonnet left in vinegar until they sharpen, spooned over fried food to cut the fat.
🗺️
Haiti. Griot earns the twice-cooked description: pork marinated in sour orange and epis, the green herb base of garlic, peppers, parsley and thyme that starts most Haitian pots, then simmered until tender and fried until the edges go crisp. Pikliz beside it is cabbage, carrot and scotch bonnet left in vinegar, and it is there to cut the fat.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Haiti
Diri Kolé ak PwaHaiti’s national rice and beans: red beans cooked into coconut-scented rice with thyme, clove, and Scotch bonnet.
Espageti AyisyenHaiti's famous breakfast spaghetti tossed with smoky herring, onions, peppers, and a hit of epis and ketchup, savory morning comfort.
Soup JoumouA golden squash soup with beef, pasta, and root vegetables, Haiti's soup of freedom, eaten every New Year's Day.
Browse all Haiti recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Haiti meal
Diri Kolé ak PwaDinner
Pen PatatDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Kremas?
Haiti's rich holiday drink: cream of coconut and sweetened milk spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, and vanilla, spiked with rum.
Where does Kremas come from?
Kremas is a Haitian dish from Ouest (Port-au-Prince), Haiti.
Can Kremas be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kremas recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kremas safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kremas take to make?
About 15 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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