SHATLER’s Cocktails - Piña Colada

Piña Colada

The Piña Colada is one of the classic cocktails. The fruity and sweet mix of rum, pineapple and coconut cream cannot be missed on any cocktail menu and is known, especially amongst women, to be one of the most popular cocktails. Decorated with a slice of pineapple and a cocktail cherry and served on crushed ice, the Piña Colada reminds of beautiful sand beaches with palms and gives you a holiday feeling sip by sip.

Piña Colada – The national drink of Puerto Rico

Where exactly this tropical summer cocktail that can also be enjoyed at any other time of the year comes from is not certain. It is safe to assume that the drink has its origin in Puerto Rico – the country, where it was appointed the national drink in 1978. There are a lot of stories about the invention of the Piña Colada. One legend says that the cocktail was created at the Caribe Hilton hotel in 1949 in Puerto Rico. The hotel itself claims the invention of the Piña Colada took place there in 1954. Another story credits the bartender Ron Ramon Portas Mingot who worked at the bar La Barrachina in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan with the invention of the colada cocktail. Today a plaque on the side of the building still reminds of the bartenders acclaimed invention.

Coconut water as a replacement for drinking-water

Other stories about the invention of the Piña Colada say that mixed drinks with pineapple, rum and coconut existed before that time and that the pirate Cabo Rojo already poured such drinks for his seafarers at the beginning of the 19^th century. If this is actually true cannot be determined today. But it is known that coconut water was often used as a replacement for drinking-water and that pineapples were already grown in tropical areas before the end of the 16^th century. Also Caribbean rum was a popular beverage amongst pirates, who often mixed it with other beverages.

The name “Piña Colada”

The name Piña Colada wasn’t a new name for a drink in 1954 either. Several sources already talk about the Piña Colada in the first half of the 20^th century. Back then it was used for cooled and sweetened pineapple juice. The words Piña and Colada are Spanish and mean pineapple and to filter or to seep through.

Piña Colada – the contemporary classic of the International Bartenders Association

Even though the true inventor of the Piña Colada is not known today, the Piña Colada itself has become one of the most famous and popular cocktails of all time. This is also proven by the International Bartenders Association putting the cocktail on the exclusive list of their contemporary classics. Their Piña Colada recipe contains 3cl of white rum, 9cl of pineapple juice and 3cl of coconut milk. All ingredients are blended with ice, poured into a cocktail glass, decorated with a slice of pineapple and a cocktail cherry and served with straws.

The SHATLER’s Piña Colada whisks you away to the Caribbean

Aside from the IBA’s recipe for the preparation of the Piña Colada there are a lot of other ways to prepare this drink. Often coconut cream is used instead of coconut milk or cream is added to the cocktail. In those cases also the ratio of the ingredients varies.

The SHATLER’s Piña Colada is a fruity and sweet mix of rum, pineapple and coconut that whisks you away on a short trip to the Caribbean.