Origin
The name of this cocktail comes from Spanish. Piña means pineapple, colada might be loosely translated as drained. You might be surprised that this cocktail, as opposed to most, does not come from Cuba. Piña Colada was born in Europe, Spain to be precise. Ricardo Garcia, an employee of a Spanish hotel, ran out of coconuts while preparing the famous Coco-Loco cocktail (coconut juice, coconut cream, and rum). Ricardo was smart and used a scooped-out pineapple instead of a coconut. This gave Coco-Loco a brand new twist, as the pineapple taste came through. The guests were intrigued and a new cocktail was born – the Piña Colada.
Rum
Most bars use white rum to prepare this drink. We all know this version. That’s why I have been searching for an interesting choice of darker rum. And then I encountered this recipe on the Kraken and Bumbu rum websites. I had to try them right away and Bumbu won. It’s true that other ingredients are sweet and intense by themselves so you can use basically any rum. But the combination with Bumbu was really interesting.
Ingredients
This will require you to own a shaker. But no worries, it’s fairly easy to make. You probably know this drink with white rum. I found this recipe on the Bumbu rum website and had to try 🙂 And it really IS great, so this is my go-to version. I have also seen a similar recipe on the Kraken website but this one works better for me 🙂 Basically, feel free to use any white or dark rum.
- 4 cl Bumbu
- 3 cl coconut cream (using Malibu works if you need to improvise)
- approx. 10 cl pineapple juice (ideally 100%)
- crushed ice
- pineapple slice for decoration
Method
Add all the ingredients into the shaker and shake well. If you do this properly, it will form a beautiful, dense foam. Ideally, pour into a Hurricane Glass (a glass with a short stem and nice chalice-like shape, approx. 600 ml) and decorate with pineapple.
Verdict
This is a creamy, sweeter type of drink. It smells wonderfully of coconut and pineapple. It is not as refreshing as Mojito but it will certainly work in the hot summer days. And if you have a sweet tooth, this one is for you. Try serving it in a coconut.
