In about four decades of drinking booze, sometimes illegally, more times legally, I've had my decent share of different alcoholic drinks. Probably all of the major types of alcohol, and probably most of the major mixed drinks. But, I realized recently that at least one was still missing--the pina colada. I vaguely recall having something pina colada-flavored--a candy perhaps--but I don't remember having the adult alcoholic drink type. If I ever did, it was very long ago, and it didn't make an impression on me one way or the other. So, I set about rectifying this. And since some of the ingredients were foreign, I could then write about them on this blog. For the record, my pina colada was made using Coco Lopez cream of coconut (from the Dominican Republic), Dole pineapple juice (an Irish-owned company, using pineapples grown in the Philippines), Caribaya coconut rum (from that tropical hotbed, Maine), and the drink itself was almost certainly developed in Puerto Rico. (I realize that Puerto Rico is technically American territory, and its citizens are American citizens, but it's also a Caribbean Island, and not a state, so I'll mention it separately.)
Coco Lopez was created by a Puerto Rican man named Ramon Lopez Irizarry, who lived from 1897-1982. A World War I veteran, he later became a professor of agricultural sciences at the University of Puerto Rico. In his spare time he tried to solve the issue of extracting the cream from coconut pulp. Working in his small laboratory, he was eventually successful in 1949, using a secret blend of the cream with cane sugar. Sensing a viable commercial idea, he left teaching to sell cream of coconut, and later other coconut-related products, with his company named Coco Lopez. The creation of the pina colada drink in 1954 (or at least the latest, most popular form of that drink) helped the business enormously, since Coco Lopez cream of coconut was one of the libation's core ingredients. Lopez joined with Industrias La Formosa Puerto Rico in the 1960's to expand his production. And in 1966 he sold the brand to his partner company's owners, the Parkhursts. Later the Parkhursts sold the brand to the American Borden family, and my can was put together in Miramar, Florida, from coconuts grown in the Dominican Republic. Coco Lopez has very few products. Aside from the cream of coconut, they sell coconut milk, pina colada mix, and coconut water. Which makes sense, since "coco" means "coconut" in Spanish.
Like a lot of drinks (and foods, really), the exact inventor of the pina colada is disputed. The oldest, and probably most apocryphal version is that the pirate Roberto Cofresi created it for his crew, sometime before his death in 1825. In the 1920's there were pina colada-like beverages--one type was made with sugar, lime, pineapple juice, rum, and ice, and a 1950's Cuban variant consisted of rum, pineapple juice, and coconut milk. However, the official recipe for the drink uses cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and rum, sometimes garnished with a pineapple wedge and/or other fruit chunks like cherries. A Spanish guy named Ricardo Garcia claimed he developed it in 1953 while working at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, which was located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But, most folks attribute the drink to another employee at that same Caribe Hilton, a bartender named Ramon "Monchito" Marrero, who invented the pina colada in 1954. The initial pina colada was more like a milkshake, and kid-friendly, but Marrero quickly added rum to it for adult customers. This is by far the most accepted, "official" invention story--the governor of Puerto Rico endorsed this version while honoring the drink's (alleged) 50th anniversary in 2004. Some folks maintain that Don Ramon Portas Mingot invented the drink while working in the Barrachina restaurant (in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico), also in 1954. Whoever actually invented it, Puerto Rico definitely seems to be the place of origin, and in 1978 it became the island's official drink. Over the years many folks have added a few tweaks to the pina colada. Some add heavy cream, and others add Angostura bitters to balance it out. Still other people mix the drink in layers with a strawberry daiquiri (called a "lava flow" or a "Miami Vice"), or layer it with Scotch (called, not very creatively, a "Scotsman Colada."). And some drinkers add tepeche, which is an alcohol derived from the fermentation of pineapple rinds and peel. Additionally, I missed out on an opportunity--July 10th is National Pina Colada Day in the U.S.
Pina colada, made with Dole pineapple juice, Coco Lopez cream of coconut, Caribaya coconut rum, and ice. I followed the recipe on the Coco Lopez can as well as I could--Combine 4 ounces (about 118.3 mL) Coco Lopez cream of coconut with 4 ounces (118.3 mL) of pineapple juice, 3 ounces of rum (about 88.7 mL), and 2 cups of ice. Then you're supposed to mix it well in a blender, and garnish it with pineapple and cherries. I didn't have a blender on hand, and I didn't bother buying the pineapple chunks or cherries. So instead I just mixed it up as well as I could in the glass with a spoon. It looked milky and frothy. I could pick out the extreme sweetness of the cream of coconut, and the tart/sweet taste of the pineapple juice. The rum was pretty hidden, but since it was coconut flavored, it probably didn't stand out from the cream of coconut. Overall I really enjoyed it. I've wasted my life. Just kidding! That's a bit strong, but I did miss out on a tasty drink. Unless you really hate pineapple juice or something, I think people should give this one a try--definite recommend. I will say that the cream of coconut is ridiculously high in calories--130 for 2 tablespoons (39 grams), so it's probably not a good idea to drink a lot of these, unless you're super thin or burn calories like a champ. It was also messy to make, to throw out a very minor complaint.
Finally, this post has a personal record for me--5 areas of origin, as seen in the absurdly long title. (Or 4 if you don't want to distinguish Puerto Rico from the U.S.) I hope to break this record at some point.
