When done right and with the right ingredients, the Piña Colada Cocktail is a pure delight. However, it frequently gives cocktail lovers a hard time. Way too often, you get something heavy and overly sweet. So let's change that.
Once you have tried a proper recipe, you will find that this Tiki cocktail is actually sensational.
The crucial part of making an excellent Piña Colada is the choice of ingredients. That means fresh and quality products and the right coconut product:
The secret key to a perfect Piña Colada is cream of coconut - not coconut cream. That sounds like not much of a difference at first. But it is absolutely vital.
Using coconut milk or coconut cream won't work. But don't despair if you cannot find it in your supermarket. You can easily make it at home with this cream of coconut recipe.
For the fruity ingredients of this Piña Colada recipe, lime, and pineapple, I strongly recommend getting both fresh and juicing them a couple of hours before mixing the cocktails.
Further, you can see that our recipe asks for pineapple juice and frozen pineapple chunks. For this, cut half of the fresh fruit into small squares, and store them in the freezer until it's time to put them in the blender.
The pieces should be small enough, so your blender can handle them when frozen. Then take the remaining bits of pineapple to make freshly squeezed pineapple juice.
Additionally, I use a base of white rum and float the blended cocktail with aged dark rum for a more complex taste. My favorites are Havana Club 2 Years for the base and Havana Club Añejo Especial for the float- both from Cuba.
If you're in the US, you won't be able to get those, I can recommend Bacardi for the base and Diplomatico Reserva for the dark rum.
The question might as well be: classic or modern? The short answer is: both ways work and deliver exquisite results. While the traditional recipe asked for blended Piña Coladas, the new wave made it a shaken cocktail.
Nevertheless, I prefer the blended version with quality ingredients. I'm often a traditionalist when it comes to cocktails, and it's no different here. I think the float looks nicer, it has a better texture, and the consistency is super smooth and silky when using a blender.
So, when it comes down to it, it is more a question of personal taste and whether you prefer classic practices. Yet, with our recipe, blending your Piña Colada delivers the best results. If you want to use a shaker, you should slightly adjust the measurements.
The Piña Colada recipe offers a few options for tweaks, even if the original is already pretty amazing:
The Pina Colada Recipe dates back to the 1950s. It was invented in a hotel bar on the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, from where it conquered North America and became part of the modern Tiki culture. Today, this tropical drink is a global household name.
If you want to know the whole story, read the entire history of the Piña Colada here.
You want to mix up more tropical rum cocktails at home? Try some of our favorite recipes:
Cream of coconut is the key ingredient to turning an average Piña Colada into a true masterpiece. Yet, depending on your location, it is not always easy to get as only a few brands produce and sell it.
But don't worry, here's an easy recipe to make an excellent version of creme of coconut that can keep up with the product from Coco Lopez - one of the most famous brands.
You don't need artificial ingredients like emulsifiers, polysorbate, alginate, and the stuff store-bought products usually contain. You can easily make a sensational homemade cream of coconut with our recipe. All you need is coconut milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt. These all-natural ingredients make it even better than the store-bought versions.
You don't need a lot of elements to create this tasty cocktail ingredient. And the ones you do need are pretty easy to get and affordable.
Quality coconut milk with around 10 - 15 % of fat, granulated sugar, and a pinch of salt is all you need to get this right. Regarding coconut milk, I like to use Aroy coconut milk from Thailand, but if you have a favorite brand that fits the brief, stick to that.
For the sugar part, you can stick to regular white granulated sugar. There's no need to shop for anything fancy, as the coconut is the sole star of the show.
If you now wonder why you cannot just use coconut cream as a substitute or at least use that for our cream of coconut recipe, read on to find out.
Let's quickly talk about the difference between cream of coconut and coconut cream:
They are two different products used for different purposes. You can not simply replace cream of coconut with canned coconut cream. The texture won't be right. The sweetness level won't be right. Thus, the result will be miles away from how it is supposed to taste.
If you want to know more, check out our article comparing cream of coconut vs. coconut cream.
That still leaves us with the question of why you should not use coconut cream as a base for our recipe. The answer is simple: The main difference between coconut milk and coconut cream is the fat content.
The more coconut pulp is used in the product, the higher the fat content. Now, for our cream of coconut recipe, you should use coconut milk because the fat content is similar to that of cream of coconut and you just have to increase the sugar part.
Whereas canned coconut cream is already so "dry" and fatty that the result won't turn out great - and you will find it impossible to lower the fat content to that of a standard cream of coconut.
Further, keep in mind that when cooking coconut milk, water will evaporate. Ultimately the fat content of the final mix will therefore increase even more.
Homemade products without added preservatives will almost always have a shorter shelf-life than their store-bought counterparts. That's no different in this case. Stores in the fridge, homemade cream of coconut will last for about 5 to 7 days max. If you keep it in the freezer, you can extend that to about 2 to 3 months.
If you buy your cream of coconut from the supermarket, the cost per serving will be around $0.25. That is alright, but you could save up to 80% on that by making your own cream of coconut.
The sugar and coconut milk will add up to roughly $0.04 - $0.07, depending on what you spend on the coconut milk. That's only a fraction of the price of, for instance, the product of Coco Lopez.
Apart from the aforementioned Piña Colada, you can use your homemade cream of coconut: