Piña Colada

Use fresh pineapple juice, if possible. It will make a huge difference in terms of flavor. Making it is fairly easy and you can make it a day or two in advance.

Consider adding a float using an aged, more flavorful rum. It will bring a delicious aroma that will increase the complexity of this drink. Other floats would also make sense here, including Green Chartreuse, which is how the Piña Verde was created.

While you can make this drink by shaking, using a blender (regular or immersion) will help froth the coconut milk (or heavy cream, if you’re using it) to its smoothest possible consistency.

If you are using an immersion blender, however, make sure the ice is already crushed (with either a lewis bag or your regular blender), otherwise you’ll dull the blades and overwork the motor. 

Remember that cream of coconut, coconut cream and coconut milk are three different things and are in no way interchangeable.  

There are several claims as to who created what we now know as the Piña Colada. One story says that it was first made by Ramón “Monchito” Marrero circa 1954 in the Caribe Hilton Hotel in Puerto Rico.

Initially, the drink was more akin to a milkshake: it contained half and half and had no alcohol in it. It was later on that Puerto Rican rum was added to it and its popularity exploded.

There’s a much older version of a drink also called “Piña Colada”, which dates back to 1922 in Havana, Cuba. This version does not contain coconut – it’s rum, pineapple, lime juice and sugar.

Piña Colada means “Strained Pineapple” in Spanish. The term “Colada” is also used in other Latin American countries as a word for milkshake. Colombia has a drink with oatmeal and milk also called a Colada. 

In 1978, the Piña Colada was named the official drink of Puerto Rico.