White rum, cream of coconut, and fresh pineapple blended — Puerto Rico's national drink from 1954.
The Piña Colada was invented in Puerto Rico in 1954 by bartender Ramón Morales (known as Ramón 'Monchito') at the Caribe Hilton hotel in San Juan. Puerto Rico officially declared it the national drink in 1978. The name means 'strained pineapple' in Spanish.
The most important ingredient decision is Coco López cream of coconut — not coconut milk, not coconut cream from a tin, not coconut water. Coco López is a sweetened, processed cream of coconut with a distinctive smooth, sweet flavour profile that cannot be replicated with substitutes. The Piña Colada is one of those rare drinks where the brand-name ingredient is genuinely essential to the classic version.
Add 4–5 fresh strawberries to the blend. Makes a pink, sweeter variation popular at beach bars.
Replace half the pineapple juice with mango purée. More tropical and less citrusy than the original.
Replace white rum with aged dark rum (Gosling's, Plantation Original Dark). The oak and molasses notes add depth to the coconut-pineapple base.