When I say Strained Pineapple, could you imagine the cocktail? Surprisingly it is in English, but no? No image? What about these two words in Spanish, Pina Colada? You know it, right?

It is the coolest Purto Rican you ever know. Coolest you know what I mean. ^_^ Okay, if I give up the dad jokes, here are the stories behind.

Some very old gossips said that this perfect match was created in the 19th century by Roberto Cofresi, Purto Rican pirate, to motivate his crew by chill alcoholic drink. He made a mix of coconut, pineapple, and rum.

But if we try to talk about facts rather than gossip it is a little bit complicated. There are two rumors.

The first one is, this drink was created in 1954 by Roman Marrera Perez the bartender of Caribe Hilton Hotel, but someone disagreed with that and claimed, in 1963 Roman Portaz Mingot mixed that drink it first. However, take which one you want, because there is an old newspaper report in The New York Times and you can see the words “Cuba’s pina colada”. Who knows, we accept that Pina Colada originated in Puerto Rico but it can be Cuban.

By the way, in 1978 Puerto Rico government announce the Pina Colada as its official drink. And nobody doubts it.

Pineapple is the base of a tiki cocktail, you can pour it over any cocktail and it will be great but in the mixology, all bartenders say quality ingredients are the key to the perfect cocktails. But in the 1970s, pina colada got famous in all-inclusive hotels, beaches, and cruises, etc. But that popularity brought cheap ingredients, even ready mixes and we lost the essence of Pina Colada.

In the 2010s, the cocktail revolution started, and Pina Colada came back to life. The first and the important change was the use of shakers, not the blenders, when you use blended ice, you create over diluted cocktails and we don’t want it. If you shake it with ice well and pour it over pebble ice you have a perfectly cool cocktail.