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Booze Banter: 10 facts about the Piña Colada
Ahead of National Rum Day this Friday (16 August), we’re bringing you the ultimate Piña Colada history lesson. We apologise in advance for getting that song in your head for the rest of the day…
At the end of last year, Bacardi nodded to escapism and nostalgia as two of the big trends to feature in the world of cocktails for 2024, and it just so happens that the Piña Colada falls into both categories, which has subsequently boosted the cocktail’s popularity this year. But how much do you know about this summer-time favourite?
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about this tropical favourite.
1. The what
All good fact lists start with a definition, and the clue is in the title of this tropical serve. However, if you’re not too hot on your Spanish, you can be forgiven for not knowing that Piña Colada translates to ‘pineapple strained’. And that’s the base for this iconic cocktail: a foundation of freshly strained pineapple juice, either shaken up or blended with rum, cream of coconut or coconut milk and garnished with a pineapple wedge, maraschino cherry or both.
2. The how
As many classic cocktails have over the years, the Piña Colada has been given endless twists and techniques, but purists will be making it one of two ways: the International Bartenders Association way, or the San Juan Puerto Rico way.
For the former, you will need:
- 1 part white rum
- 1 part coconut cream
- 3 parts pineapple juice
Either mix with crushed ice in a blender until smooth and pour into a chilled glass, or pour over ice in a cocktail glass, unblended.
While the latter requires:
- 30ml heavy cream
- 180ml freshly pressed pineapple juice
- 30ml cream of coconut
- 60ml rum (any style)
- 1/2 cup crushed ice
Combine all together in a blender with crushed ice for 15 seconds before serving in a glass with pineapple slice and cherry for garnish.
3. The who
This is a tricky one to answer, as there are several different claims as to who can put this cocktail to their name.
For a start, there’s not one but two claims that come from The Caribe Hilton in 1954, one of the premier luxury hotels in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.
The first belongs to bartender Ramón ‘Monchito’ Marrero, who is believed to have been tasked with creating a signature drink for the hotel that ‘captured the flavours of the island’. Refusing to settle for anything less than perfection, he spent three months experimenting with hundreds of combinations before settling on the three-ingredient recipe for this cocktail.
While that is the story people tend to accept the most, the second claim to come from the Caribe Hilton is from Spaniard Ricardo Gracia, who, the story goes, was prevented from serving up the hotel’s popular mixed drink of rum, cream of coconut and crushed ice in its traditional sliced coconut due to a strike by a coconut-cutters union in 1954. Forced to improvise, he poured the drink into a hollowed-out pineapple instead. When the fruit’s added flavour proved popular, Gracia said he added freshly pressed and strained pineapple juice to the rum and cream of coconut combo to create the strained pineapple cocktail.
However, it is plausible that the cocktail’s credit actually belongs to 19th-century Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresi, who was said to have boosted the morale of his men by giving them a pick-me-up drink of white rum, pineapple juice and coconut milk. You know what they say about pirates and rum…
Whichever of these stories is true, it almost doesn’t matter to The Caribe Hilton, which serves more than 53,000 Piña Coladas at the hotel each year.
4. Holiday state of mind
In a survey by Hilton Hotels & Resorts last month, it was revealed that Piña Coladas can invoke a ‘vacation mindset’ for its drinkers. In fact, 96% of Americans said they feel relaxed with the tropical drink, and 87% of respondents picture lounging by water with a tropical drink in hand when asked to describe a relaxing vacation.
Meanwhile, 65% said they would drink a tropical drink at any time of day, with more than a third of respondents counting it as their daily fruit intake while on holiday. However, despite the cocktail’s holiday popularity, only 35% said they typically order the drink outside of a vacation setting.
5. A different holiday state of mind
In a 2022 survey of 2,000 consumers by online retailer Freemans, 10% of UK drinkers said the Piña Colada was their favourite cocktail to make during the Christmas holidays, despite its more tropical connotations. We’d definitely choose a Piña Colada over a Snowball any day!
6. The best rums for the job
For those 35% of consumers who do want to drink a Piña Colada when not on holiday, it’s important to give yourself a fighting chance to make it a really good one (to make up for the lack of sun, sea and sand).
Typically the cocktail sings best when featuring a white rum, as the pale colour allows the yellow pineapple and white coconut to shine through, giving it a tropical look. However that’s not to say you can’t go rogue. Opt for a gold rum to bring a bit more warmth, or a spiced rum for something a bit… spicier.
Or you can follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s best bars such as The Rum House in New York, which uses the golden Bacardi Añejo Cuatro for its rendition of the Piña Colada (called The Escape), which is heralded as offering a slight oak flavour, while over in London, food and beverage manager of Stereo, Nicolas Brulin, notes that the softer, subtle notes of Planteray Original Dark are able to “embrace the gentle notes of banana and vanilla with a hint of plum and clove” that are found in its house Plantary Colada, which is made with mix of original dark and Planteray OFTD rums, blended with Re’al coconut cream, fresh pineapple and a touch of citrus. “This helps balance the punchy 69% ABV in OFTD, playing on its notes of clove and caramelised apple. A harmony of tropical spirits, balanced and the perfect addition to the Planteray Colada.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Lewis from Kiki Lounge on the Isle of Man features the locally produced Hoolie Manx white rum in the bar’s frozen Piña Colada, which is paired with fresh pineapple, coconut and lime, and served straight from a slushie machine. “This version is cold, crisp, and carries a distinctively bright, almost agricole note thanks to the Hoolie rum,” Lewis says.
7. The biggest
If you were going to attempt to make the world’s largest Piña Colada, what equipment would you use?
Well, it turns out the best way to achieve such a feat is to contact your local building contractor and ask to borrow their cement mixer. Ideally the biggest one they have, because you’d need to create more than 690 litres of the stuff to take the crown from the Selena Rosa Restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York, which celebrated National Piña Colada Day (10 July) in 2017 by making ‘the largest Piña Colada ever made’.
They used more than 100 bottles of pineapple juice to create the giant cocktail, which resulted in more than 5,000 serves throughout the day.
And this wasn’t the first time a cement mixer was used to create a super-sized version of the drink. In 2010, bartender Georgi Radev, former manager of Mahiki nightclub in London, used 140 bottles of rum to mix up 310 litres of Piña Colada in a cement mixer.
8. The song
You know the song, we know the song. The chances are you’ve danced to this song at many a wedding (it is technically about infidelity, but that doesn’t stop it being an absolute bop), but did you know Escape (The Pina Colada Song) was almost never a thing?
Written and performed by Rupert Holmes in 1979, the hit that is now so synonymous with the cocktail nearly left out any mention of it at all, with the original lyrics being: “If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain.” Luckily, Holmes changed them at the last moment, probably because trying to find a fellow ‘lonely heart’ that likes Humphrey Bogart might have been a bit too much of an ask (and finding a partner that likes cocktails is a much bigger turn-on).
9. Environmental impact
There’s a reason why the Piña Colada makes you think of tropical beaches: it’s made with tropical ingredients. Unfortunately most of us don’t live in tropical climates, so if you want a Piña Colada, the necessary ingredients have to travel.
In 2022, Alliance Online compiled a ranking of the cocktails with the biggest carbon footprint, and sadly for this tropical delight, it topped the list with a whopping 690g of CO2e per drink. That roughly equates to enough carbon emissions to drive 8.6 miles in a petrol-powered car or charge 420 smartphones for every five drinks.
This is due to the UK’s fresh pineapples being mostly imported from Costa Rica, resulting in around 640kg of CO2 emissions from pineapple imports alone, while coconut cream, the majority of which is imported from Sri Lanka, results in additional 637kg of CO2 emissions in air miles. Yikes.
10. Variations
While the Piña Colada is a bonafide classic, there are many variations of the serve around the world. Can you even be a classic cocktail without someone trying to give you a twist?
The Blue Hawaiian, which adds Blue Curaçao to the classic recipe, is probably the most popular twist. Last year we travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, where one example of this variation can be found at the rooftop bar White Limozeen. The blue-hued Living The Dream is made with a combination of White Limozeen’s House Rum Blend, house-made coconut cream, crème de banane, Blue Curaçao, pineapple juice, and ripe banana, all blended in a smoothie maker with plenty of ice. “This drink is basically my thoughts on what would happen if a Blue Hawaiian and Piña Colada had a baby,” beverage director Demi Natoli told us.
In the UK, east London bar Coupette is famous for its Champagne Piña Colada, which includes frozen coconut sorbet to ensure the temperature remains “as low as possible”, while retaining its fragrant, creamy smoothness. It is then topped with a float of Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial.
Meanwhile, back at Kiki Lounge, the team have opted to serve the Chi Chi, a long-forgotten vodka-based riff on the classic. “We use Boatyard Vodka, lacto-fermented pineapple cordial, Lillet Blanc, and clarify the drink using the milk punch method with coconut milk,” Lewis tells us. “The result is a clean, accessible cocktail that balances tradition with a modern flair. As for a personal guilty pleasure, I can’t resist a splash of Malibu – shaken rather than blended. It’s a little bit camp and a whole lot kitschy, especially with a disco cherry on top!”
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