A Piña Colada built on frozen fresh pineapple instead of juice and ice. Less ice means less water, and less water means more flavour. It takes ten extra minutes and it is a different drink.
Ingredients:
- 4 oz Bombarda Culverin or Drake
- 2 1/2 to 3 chunks fresh pineapple, frozen firm
- 3 oz cream of coconut (Coco Real or Coco Lopez)
- 2 oz heavy cream
- 1 tsp fresh lime juice
- 1 dash Angostura bitters — easy does it
- 1 cup ice
- Toasted coconut chips, nutmeg, a maraschino cherry and pineapple slices, to garnish
- The Flotsam Floater: 1/2 to 1 oz Falconet dark rum
Method of Attack:
- Freeze the fresh pineapple chunks until firm. This is the step that matters — do not skip it.
- In a blender, combine the rum, cream of coconut, heavy cream, lime juice, bitters and frozen pineapple. Blend.
- Add the ice and blend again until creamy. If it is too thick, add a few drops of cream or pineapple juice and blend to the consistency you want.
- Serve in a tall glass.
- Float the dark rum over the top, then finish with nutmeg, toasted coconut, a cherry and pineapple slices.
About This Recipe:
A chase gun was the long gun mounted at the bow or stern, the only piece that could fire while running down an enemy or running from one. Accurate at range, and the gun you reached for when everything depended on the next shot.
The Piña Colada is Puerto Rico's national drink, generally credited to Ramón Marrero at the Caribe Hilton in 1954 — though the name appears in Puerto Rican accounts a century earlier, when piña colada simply meant strained pineapple.
There are good Piña Coladas and there are excellent ones. Freezing the pineapple cuts the ice you need, and less ice means more flavour. The fresh lime, the heavy cream and a single dash of bitters do the rest.
Why this rum:
This is the sweetest standard drink in the rum repertoire. Cream of coconut is sugar by design, pineapple adds more, and it tips into dessert with very little encouragement.
A rum with added sugar leaves no counterweight anywhere in the glass and the whole thing goes one-note. Culverin is dry and peppery and cuts straight through the coconut. Drake is richer and darker. Neither carries added sugar, caramel colorant or chill filtration — which is the entire reason this version tastes of pineapple rather than of sugar.
Battle Notes:
The Flotsam Floater is not decoration. Half an ounce of dark rum poured over the back of a spoon sits on top, and the first mouthful through it is the best part of the drink.
More on choosing a Colada rum in our guide to the best rum for a Piña Colada. For a variation, try the Watermelon Painkiller.
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