Piña colada

Piña Colada

IBA Official Cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Rum
Served	Blended with ice (frozen style)
Standard garnish	pineapple slice and maraschino cherry
Standard drinkware	goblet, copo grande, hurricane, tiki, or pint
IBA specified ingredients*	30 ml (one part) white rum 30 ml (one part) cream of coconut 90 ml (3 parts) pineapple juice
Preparation	Mix with crushed ice until smooth. Pour into chilled glass, garnish and serve.
* Piña Colada recipe at International Bartenders Association

The piña colada (Spanish, strained pineapple: piña, pineapple + colada, strained) is a sweet, rum-based cocktail made with rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with a pineapple wedge, a maraschino cherry or both. The piña colada has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978.

Origin

The piña colada was introduced on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by its alleged creator, Ramón "Monchito" Marrero. Apparently, the hotel management had expressly requested Monchito to mix a new signature drink that would delight the demanding palates of its star-studded clientele. Monchito accepted the challenge, and after three intense months of blending, shaking and experimenting, the first piña colada was born. This story is more credible because the piña colada contains coconut cream as one of the primary ingredients, and the coconut cream of "Coco López" (which is the pioneer) was invented in 1954 in the University of Puerto Rico by Ramón López Irizarry. This story is confirmed by José L. Díaz De Villegas in his book Puerto Rico La Gran Cocina Del Caribe.

Original piña colada

The bartender widely recognized as being the creator of the piña colada, Mr. Ramón Marrero, created the drink using Don Q rum. After spending months perfecting the recipe, Mr. Marrero created and sold the first piña colada on August 15, 1954, while working as the head bartender at the Caribe Hilton International Hotel, the most popular hotel in Puerto Rico among the 1950s. Mr. Marrero subsequently received numerous awards and recognition for his creation. Notably, in 1978, Mr. Marrero was presented with an award for selling the three-millionth piña colada by Coco López, the maker of the coconut cream used in the drink. On the same day, the government declared the piña colada to be the official drink of Puerto Rico.

Other stories

The earliest known story states that in the 1800s, Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí (El Pirata Cofresí), to boost his crew's morale, gave them a beverage or cocktail that contained coconut, pineapple and white rum. This was what would be later known as the famous piña colada. With his death in 1825, the recipe for the piña colada was lost.

The earliest known reference to a drink specifically called a piña colada from the

is from TRAVEL magazine, December 1922:

"But best of all is a piña colada, the juice of a perfectly ripe pineapple—a delicious drink in itself—rapidly shaken up with ice, sugar, lime and Bacardi rum in delicate proportions. What could be more luscious, more mellow and more fragrant?"

This quote describes a drink without coconut, as the piña colada was originally just the juice of a fresh pineapple served either strained (colada) or unstrained (sin colar). This evolved into a rum drink, and finally it changed into the drink we know today.

Plaque in San Juan, Puerto Rico, commemorating Ramón Portas Mingot's creation of the beverage

It is also claimed that piña colada was introduced on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Ramón Marrero. Apparently, the hotel management had expressly requested Monchito to mix a new signature drink that would delight the demanding palates of its starstudded clientele. Monchito accepted the challenge, and after 3 intense months of blending, shaking and experimenting, the first piña colada was born.

Barcelona-born Hilton employee Ricardo Gracia claims to have invented the contended drink in 1954 under a series of fortuitous circumstances. Rumor has it that while Gracia worked at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan de Puerto Rico, the coconut cutters’ union decided to strike. Until that moment, the Puerto Rican drink of choice had been the popular Coco-Loco, a mix of coconut milk, rum and coconut cream served inside a fresh macheted coconut. When the coconut supply was halted by the strike, resourceful Ricardo Gracia made the executive decision to relocate the ingredients of the Coco-Loco inside hollowed out pineapples (evidently the pineapple cutters’ union had not followed suit with a strike of their own). Once the coconut flavor and rum came into contact with the sweet acidity of the pineapple pulp, the piña colada was inevitably born.

Barrachina, a restaurant in Puerto Rico, also claims to be the birth place of the piña colada:

"In 1963, on a trip to South America, Mr Barrachina met another popular Spaniard and bartender Mr. Ramon Portas Mingot. Don Ramon has worked with the best places in Buenos Aires and associated with 'Papillon' the most luxurious bar in Carcao and was also recognized for his cocktail recipe books. Pepe Barrachina and Don Ramon developed a great relationship. While working as the main bartender at Barrachina (a restaurant in Puerto Rico), Ramon mixed pineapple juice, coconut cream, condensed milk and ice in a blender, creating a delicious and refreshing drink, known today as the Piña Colada.

Popularity

This cocktail has been famous in Puerto Rico since 1978, and it became more widely known after Rupert Holmes released his song "Escape", commonly known as "The Piña Colada Song".

Preparation

There are many recipes of how to make a piña colada but the one that his friends tell in the book of José L. Díaz De Villegas to be the original recipe created by Monchito, is the following, pour 3 ounces of coconut cream, 6 ounces of pineapple juice and 1½ ounces of white rum into a blender or shaker with crushed ice, and blend or shake very well until smooth. Pour into chilled glass, garnish with pineapple wedge and/or a maraschino cherry.

Variations

• Different proportions may be used. For example, 1 part rum, 2 each of pineapple juice and coconut cream.
• Dark rum may be used.
• Amaretto colada — amaretto substituted for rum
• Belizean piña colada — evaporated milk (e.g., PET Evaporated Milk) instead of coconut cream
• Caribou Lou - Malibu Rum, pineapple juice and 151 rum
• Iguana Colada - piña colada with Midori
• Kahlúa Colada — substitute Kahlúa for the rum
• King Henry or Chi Chi — vodka substituted for rum
• Lava Flow — strawberry daiquiri and piña colada blended together
• Marula Colada - Amarula instead of rum
• Miami Vice — 1/2 strawberry daiquiri poured over 1/2 piña colada (use frozen versions of each, and do not blend together)
• Staten Island Ferry — coconut rum and pineapple juice over ice
• Virgin piña colada or piñita colada — without the rum
• Gbouadaa Colada --when rum is nonexistant or just too weak, add some Sodabe (so-da-bee), which is west African moonshine and oh so delicious.

See also

• Coco López
• "Escape" - also known as "The Piña Colada Song"
• Ramón López Irizarry