On my first day in college, I sat at a desk where someone had carved a phrase about liking piña colada and getting caught in the rain. The phrase was probably carved during one of those boring lectures in Math.
Who carved it, I’ll never know. I was 15, I never had a piña colada in my life and, heck, I didn’t even know exactly what the drink contained except that it surely had pineapple in it. But I’ll never forget the image that the words formed inside my head. I thought it was very, very romantic.
I would learn much later that the phrase consists of two lines from a song by Rupert Holmes entitled Escape but which became more popularly known as The Piña Colada Song.
If that’s not enough to tickle my imagination, legend has it that Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí mixed the first piña colada with coconut, pineapple and rum, and gave it to his crew to boost their morale.
True or not, the story adds a swashbuckling background to this exotic drink. The tangy pineapple juice melds with the natural sweetness of the coconut cream and the result is smooth and silky and, well, simply dreamy.
There is blended piña colada (mixed with ice in a blender) and there’s shaken piña colada (shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker).
We find that blending or shaking makes the coconut cream form too much froth. Stirring, with no shaking, minimizes this. Of course, there are people who like froth on top of their piña colada. If you’re one of them, go ahead and use a cocktail shaker.
Piña Colada
Ingredients
- 2 ounces light rum
- 2 ounces coconut rum
- 3 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
- 2 ounces unsweetened coconut cream - fresh is best but you may substitute canned or powdered
Instructions
- Place ice cubes in a small pitcher.
- Add all the ingredients.
- Stir until chilled.
- Pour into glasses and serve.
- Optionally, garnish with a wedge of pineapple.
