Cheers! If you like pina coladas, this cocktail how-to is for you
If you like Pîna Coladas ...
Just like the song goes, you may never realize what someone really likes. While I am well known for making high-quality cocktails using fresh ingredients, I also love fruity, sweet blender drinks.
Call it a guilty pleasure caused by growing up and reaching legal drinking age in the 1980s. Neon-colored, fruity, über-sweet drinks of my youth left an indelible impression on my tastebuds.
Cocktails like the Blue Lagoon, strawberry daiquiri and the Pîna Colada were the preferred quaffs of my early informative drinking years.
The Pîna Colada has earned an awful reputation thanks to decades of being made with low-quality ingredients for the mass tourist trade.
But the version I make has vibrant, flavorful fresh fruit and delicious, full-fat heavy whipping cream. I add a good-quality Puerto Rican silver rum to that mix and a healthy amount of ice to create a frothy perfection of a blender cocktail.
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The Pîna Colada is straight from the mid-century modern era. And like all good cocktails, the Pîna Colada has a murky tale of how it was invented.
Two bartenders at the Caribe Hotel in San Juan both claim to have invented it. And another restaurant also in San Juan claims to have created this frothy, fruity concoction.
The most well known and widely accepted inventor was a bartender from the Caribe Hotel named Ramon ‘Monchito’ Perez. In 1954, he was tasked to create a drink that epitomized in a glass the tropical paradise of Puerto Rico.
After months of experimentation, Monchito came up with the mix of fresh pineapple juice, coconut, cream and, of course, Puerto Rican rum. It became an instant hit and was soon copied by bars and hotels all over the island.
Pîna Colada translates to strained pineapple. Using fresh pineapple juice gives this cocktail that amazing flavor burst.
Canned and bottled versions of pineapple juice use heat in the production process. This kills both the flavor and sweetness. Some juices use added sugar later in the process to sweeten the dulled juice.
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Creating fresh squeezed pineapple juice at home is a messy and time-consuming project, even with a juicer.
If you don’t have a juicer, you can create a pineapple puree in your blender then press the puree through a fine mesh sieve. Once you have the juice from that pressing, strain the juice again through cheesecloth to remove even finer pieces of pulp.
The process works great, though you’ll have huge amounts of pulp to deal with and need several pineapples to get even 30 ounces of juice. But one sip will make all the work and mess worthwhile.
Another alternative is to buy cold-pressed pineapple juice which you can find in the cold juice section at most grocery stores.
Cold-pressed juice is a process that shreds the pineapple into a pulp. That pulp has some water added to it and is then subjected to a hydraulic press. This press uses extreme pressure to extract the liquid from the pulp. It is then bottled and kept chilled.
Pîna Coladas are made by the blender-full, which makes it a perfect drink to serve a crowd. The recipe is still delicious if you omit the rum to serve a non-alcoholic version. Just up the pineapple juice to 16 ounces for this version.
Traditionally served in a tall fluted glass called a Poco Grande, the Pîna Colada makes an entrance for all to notice when presented. Garnish is normally a cherry and a pineapple slice notched and resting on the rim of the glass.
I like to serve my Pîna Coladas in a rocks glass for a more demure version. This works perfectly when entertaining as I can serve several people from just one blender batch. My other go-to glass is vintage tall Collins glass.
Pîna Colada
(Serves 2-4)
4 ounces silver Puerto Rican rum
3 ounces cream of coconut
2 ounces heavy whipping cream
12 ounces pineapple juice
5 cups crushed ice
Add all ingredients into a blender. Set on high and blend until smooth. Pour into a rocks glass. Garnish with a pineapple slice and cherry.
Christina Jordan is a member of the Straw Hat Barmen and an advocate for quality cocktails. Her book, Everyday Exotic Cocktails, Florida Edition, features 50 recipes for fresh, easy-to-make, exotic cocktails with a Florida twist. It is available through Amazon and Etsy. She recently published her second book, Every Day Exotic Cocktails, Country Chic Edition.