Pina Coladas are the ultimate refreshing summer cocktail with rum, cream of coconut, pineapple, and fresh lime juice. A cool, sweet cocktail!
This Drink Recipe will become a favorite cocktail for hot summer days. It’s fruity, refreshing, and easy to make. Try my Manhattan and Moscow Mule recipes next for more homemade versions of classic cocktails.
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Sabrina’s Pina Colada Recipe
This classic cocktail recipe is perfect for enjoying a beach bar while soaking up the sun on vacation. However, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy the tropical flavors and chilling effects of a boozy Piña Colada while at home.
Follow my simple recipe to make this popular coconut cocktail in just a few minutes. Then, you can enjoy it by the pool, in your backyard during a cookout, or just sitting inside. No matter the weather outside, you can feel like you’re on your beautiful tropical island while sipping this drink.
Chef’s Note: Alternate Ways to Make
While making this drink in a cocktail shaker is easy, I’ve also included instructions for making it in a blender later in the recipe if you prefer a frozen slushy version of this classic cocktail. If you’re serving a large group, I’ve also put tips on making a large batch instead of mixing one drink at a time so you can spend more time mingling with guests!
Ingredients
- Rum: You’ll want to use 2 ounces of white rum for this recipe. Dark rum, with its smoky flavor, won’t blend well with the fruit flavors. The light rum makes the tangy and sweet tropical taste most notable.
- Cream of coconut: This ingredient adds coconut flavor and some extra sweetness to the recipe. Its slightly syrupy consistency also thickens the drink, though it’s smooth and easy to sip.
- Pineapple juice: Pineapple juice is an essential flavor component in any Pina Colada. Its citrusy flavor is tart and sweet, so it’s easy to taste and doesn’t overwhelm the other cocktail ingredients.
- Ice: Pina Coladas are best served completely chilled, so be sure to serve it iced. You can also use shaved ice for a more blended consistency.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Cocktail Shaker: A cocktail shaker is a bar tool designed to help prepare cocktails and mixed drinks.
- Hurricane Glass: A Hurricane cocktail glass is ideal for tropical and fruity drinks because the way it flares at the top lets the fruity aromatics shine and leaves room for fruit garnishes.
- Blender: Blenders are great for making smoothies, soups, sauces, and more. They come with various speed settings and can handle larger quantities.
How to Make
Time needed: 5 minutes.
- Combine:
Add the rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, lime juice, and 1 cup of ice cubes to a cocktail shaker. Then, shake the mixture vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Pour:
Add ½ cup of ice cubes to a chilled hurricane glass. Then, strain the Pina Colada mixture over the ice.
- Finish:
Garnish the glass with a pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry. Then, enjoy the tropical cocktail.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup rum 2 ounces
- 3 tablespoons cream of coconut 1 ½ ounces
- 3 tablespoons pineapple juice 1 ½ ounces
- 1 tablespoon lime juice freshly squeezed ½ ounce
- 1 ½ cups ice cubes
- pineapple wedge , for garnish
- 1 maraschino cherry , for garnish
Instructions
- Add rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, lime juice, and 1 cup ice cubes to a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Add ½ cup ice cubes to a chilled hurricane glass, then strain the cocktail into the glass.
- Garnish rim of glass with a pineapple wedge and top with a maraschino cherry.
Nutrition
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What to Pair With Pina Coladas
- Shrimp Tacos: Made with taco seasoning and topped with cabbage and sour cream, shrimp tacos are a quick and easy dinner perfect for healthy weeknight meals!
- Asian Tuna Salad Lettuce Cups: These lettuce cups offer all the flavors of your favorite Asian salad at your favorite restaurants but with much more lean protein and flavor. You can easily pack these for lunch, and you won’t have a soggy salad.
- Easy Pulled Pork: This is made in the oven (no smoker needed!) with a delicious homemade rub that tastes like it came from your favorite BBQ restaurant. It’ll be the hit of the summer season.
- Grilled Pineapple: Easy Brown Sugar Grilled Pineapple is the quintessential side dish for any summer meal. It takes just a few minutes in a pan.
- Grilled Chicken: Easy Grilled Chicken Breasts are a recipe you’ll use all summer. The lemon marinade is perfect for lunches, dinners, salads, soups, and more!
How to Store
- Serve: Like most cocktail recipes, pina coladas taste best after blending the ingredients. Don’t leave the recipe out for longer than an hour, or the ice can melt and water down the drink mixture.
- Store: If you want to store the drink for later, keep it in an airtight container in the freezer. The mixture will stay good for about 3 months. Then, you can put it in the fridge to thaw and blend again before serving.
More Ways to Make a Pina Colada
Blended Pina Colada
Instead of making your Piña Colada recipe in a cocktail shaker, you can make it into a blended drink using a high-powered blender. This option is great if you want a slushy consistency.
- Combine: Add the white rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, lime juice, and ice cubes to the blender pitcher.
- Blend: Then turn the blender to high power. Blend until it has a slushy-like or icy consistency.
- Pour: Pour the blender mixture into your hurricane glass, add garnishes, and enjoy.
- Finish: Garnish the glass with a pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry. Then, enjoy the tropical cocktail.
Pina Coladas for a Crowd
Using a blender is also a great option if you’re making a big batch and want to blend more than one cocktail at once.
- Multiply: Multiply the cocktail ingredients by the number of people you plan to serve.
- Combine: Then add the ice and other ingredients to a large blender.
- Blend: Turn on the blender and pulse until it’s all combined.
- Divide: Then, divide the cocktail smoothie into Hurricane glasses.
- Finish: Garnish the glass with a pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry.
Frequently Asked Questions
A pina colada is a tropical cocktail first created in Puerto Rico. While the ingredients can vary depending on how you make it, the frozen cocktail is typically made with white rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice, like in this recipe.
The only alcoholic ingredient in this cocktail mixture is rum. After combining the rum with the cream of coconut and fruit juice, the finished cocktail is around 13% ABV, depending on the type of rum you use and how heavy your pour is. That’s around the same alcohol content you’d have in a glass of wine. You can get drunk if you’re enjoying more than one cocktail. Because of the sweet, fruity flavor, it’s also easy to drink Pina Coladas quickly, so try to be aware of the alcohol content and your tolerance while drinking.
Malibu Rum is the usual choice for this tropical drink. It’s light and smooth and pairs nicely with the fruity flavors. You could also use Rum Fire, Zaya, or Bati Fijian White Rum in your Pina Colada.
Yes. If you don’t have rum, vodka makes a good alternative. However, vodka doesn’t have the same sweet notes as rum, so we’d recommend adding a splash of simple syrup or extra pineapple juice to keep the cocktails’ fruity, tropical flavor.
No. As you can likely guess from the name, coconut cream is thicker and creamier than coconut milk. It has this thicker consistency because more coconut flesh makes the mixture. The coconut cream we used in this recipe is also different. It’s less thick and more syrupy, making blending into the cocktail mixture easier. It’s also sweeter. If you use coconut cream or coconut milk to make the cocktail, we recommend adding simple syrup to compensate for the lost sweetness.
You don’t need a lot of equipment to make the perfect Pina Colada. You’ll want a cocktail shaker to combine and chill the ingredients in. You could use a blender if you don’t have a cocktail shaker. Then, you’ll use hurricane glasses to serve the drink recipe. This type of cocktail glass is ideal for tropical and fruity drinks because the way it flares at the top lets the fruity aromatics shine and leaves room for fruit garnishes.
Variations
- Cherry Pina Coladas: There are so many delicious fruit flavors that you can add to this cocktail blend. One easy flavor is using cherry syrup. You can swap out the lime juice in the original recipe with cherry syrup.
- Orange Pina Colada: Another delicious flavor is using orange juice. Use half pineapple juice and half orange juice for a combination of delicious citrusy flavors.
- More fruit flavors: You can add a variety of other fruit flavors, such as strawberries, bananas, mangoes, or raspberries, by blending frozen or fresh fruit with the other cocktail ingredients in a high-powered blender.
- Mocktail Pina Colada: If you want to enjoy this wonderful fruity drink but aren’t partaking in alcohol, you can absolutely make an alcohol-free version. You’ll have to swap out the rum in the original recipe for a non-alcoholic alternative. Apple juice, orange juice, or white grape juice make good alternatives for rum.
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