Piña Colada

Do you like Piña Coladas? OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way, time to make some cocktails. Light rum shaken with cream of coconut and pineapple juice creates a refreshing tropical cocktail that all are sure to enjoy. It's well loved for a reason.

You've probably seen this cocktail served in a Hurricane Glass but it's also often served in a tall glass. Don't fuss too much and just enjoy the drink.

This recipe is for the basic shaken version of the cocktail. There are other frozen versions made in a blender that are good too, however, this drink is of course more traditional. After all, the name Piña Colada is Spanish for strained pineapple, it seems better to shake and strain this drink rather than blend it.

Enjoy!

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL White Rum
60 mL Pineapple Juice
45 mL Cream of Coconut
Garnish with lime wedge, pineapple wedge, and cherry (optional)

Instructions

Pour Rum, Pineapple Juice, and Cream of Coconut into a cocktail shaker with lots of ice. Shake until very cold.
Strain into a Collins glass.
Add garnish on a cocktail spear. Enjoy.

Notes

Don't be fooled into using cheap Rum for this drink. Just because you're combining it with Pineapple Juice and Coconut doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to enjoy the Rum too!

While it may feel appropriate to classify this drink as Tiki, in truth, it likely dates back much further, likely to the early 1800's. So it pre-dates the whole Tiki thing by more than 100 years. Does it feel Tiki? Yeah. Can you drink it with a Tiki vibe? Sure. But if you want to split hairs, it's not Tiki. While we'll fight you on this, we've still kept this in the "Tiki" category for people searching because that's where a lot of people will look! Oh well...

But classifications aside, this is still a great cocktail with a clear tropical vibe. If you're having a tropical style party, this drink will be just as welcome as any Tiki cocktail out there.

Our Review of the Piña Colada

The Piña Colada is one of those cocktails that can sometimes have a poor reputation. It’s one of those drinks that seems a little stereotypical or overdone. A cocktail full of watered down cheap rum that you have on vacation in some overpriced resort. In a lot of ways, the Piña Colada deserves this, but in many other ways, it’s better to judge a cocktail on its own merits like the flavour rather than the fact that it’s a vacation drink.

So thinking about the Piña Colada independently, it’s actually quite a lovely cocktail. Coconut and pineapple, what is more tropical and refreshing than that? Then add some rum for flavour and some zing, and you’ve really got a great drink going.

Like so many older cocktails, the Piña Colada has been used as the inspiration for so many other cocktail recipes, and many of these newer cocktail recipes are better in a lot of ways. The Painkiller is a prime example of this. It’s obviously an extension of the Piña Colada and has a lot more to it that the basic recipe of rum, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut.

But personally, I think people should enjoy and learn about the basics before moving onto the newer versions. Learn and enjoy the history, and you can enjoy the new stuff even better. This may sound like gatekeeping, but it’s more of a suggestion than a decree. Honestly, have whatever cocktail you want in whatever order you want; you don’t even have to care what’s in it! But the more you pick up making and drinking cocktails as a hobby, the more you want to know about them, and the more you want to go on a journey with these things. And the Piña Colada is part of that journey.

So drink a part of history! This recipe is up there with cocktails like the Old Fashioned for just being extremely old and classic. It’s something everybody needs to try at least once.

Enjoy.

8.5/10

Review by Sarah

Keep the Rum flowing with more cocktail recipes!

As you’ve probably noted, the Piña Colada contains White Rum. We have a ton of cocktail recipes with Rum in them, so take a look:

Top 20 classic cocktail recipes: before we go into Rum based cocktails, you may want to check out our favourite classic cocktails. The Piña Colada is surely a classic, so check out some more.

Top 10 Rum cocktail recipes: take a look at our favourite cocktail recipes with Rum in them. There’s quite a few good ones in there!

All Rum cocktail recipes: or if you just want to see everything with Rum in it, take flick through the archives of everything we have!

All White Rum cocktail recipes: or if it’s just White Rum that you’re interested in, we’ve filtered everything just by cocktail recipes that are based on White Rum. Take a look!

All Tiki cocktail recipes: as mentioned, we’re kind of shoving this recipe into Tiki because that’s often how people think about it. See other Tiki cocktail recipes.