National Piña Colada Day & The Original Piña Colada Recipe
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Updated July 2026 July 10th is National Piña Colada Day—and it’s our favorite tropical cocktail. It’s also the national drink of Puerto Rico, where it was invented. Piña is Spanish for pineapple, and colada means strained: The drink is usually served blended with ice and strained into the glass. Join us for a taste of Caribbean bliss. > The history of the Piña Colada. > The original Piña Colada recipe. > Food to serve with Piña Coladas. > How to turn a fresh pineapple into a vessel for a drink. Elsewhere on The Nibble: > The year’s 49 cocktail holidays. > The year’s 10 pineapple holidays. > The year’s 11 coconut holidays. > The history of pineapple. There would be no Piña Colada without Coco Lopez (photo #4), the coconut cream used to make it. Coco López is a brand of cream of coconut, invented in 1954 by Ramón López Irizarry, a professor of agriculture at the University of Puerto Rico. The ingredients on the can include coconut milk, sugar, water, emulsifiers, stabilizers and thickeners (guar gum, locust bean gum, mono- and diglycerides, polysorb 60, sorbitan monostearate, Propylene glycol alginate) and preservative (citric acid). The creamy heart of the coconut fruit had long been used in Caribbean desserts. But separating it from from the coconut pulp was an arduous process. With funds from the government, Professor Irizarry worked on a solution. He found it! He ultimately left teaching to produce and sell his product, which was adopted not just by cooks but by bartenders. According to the book “La Gran Cocina Del Caribe” by José L. Díaz de Villega, the Piña Colada made its debut on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a watering hole for a star-studded clientele. The hotel management had requested that bartender Ramón “Monchito” Marrero create a new signature cocktail. Marrero (photo #5) worked for three months on the recipe, blending rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice. Both the regular and frozen versions debuted in 1954 at the Caribe Hilton. Its Popularity Today In bars and restaurants, the Piña Colada has ranked among America’s top 10 cocktails by sales. A CGA tracker study from 2022 placed the Piña Colada at No. 9 among the 30 most popular cocktails in the U.S., up from No. 17. The year prior, the Piña Colada was the most searched-for cocktail overall in America, reflecting interest. In terms of the frozen version, a 2022 nationwide survey revealed that the frozen Piña Colada (photo #6) ranked second only to the frozen Margarita among America’s favorite alcoholic slushies. Ingredients Per Drink 1. COMBINE the rum, coconut cream, heavy cream and pineapple juice in a blender. Add the ice and blend for about 15 seconds or until smooth. 2. POUR into a 12-ounce glass. Garnish with a fresh pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry. *The difference between a good and great Piña Colada is the difference between canned and fresh pineapple juice. |
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 [7] A light dinner for a Piña Colada party: coconut shrimp, jerk chicken skewers with pineapple salsa, fish tacos, ceviche (photo: The Nibble). FOOD TO SERVE WITH PIÑA COLADAS Piña Coladas—creamy and sweet—are best paired with nibbles that have acidity, crunch, salt, and/or spice. For our get-together, our neighbors brought coconut shrimp and jerk chicken skewers, turning our “cocktail invitation” into a light dinner. The coconut shrimp were served with a sweet-hot chile sauce, and the jerk chicken with a mango-pineapple chutney, to which we added a second, spicy pineapple salsa, from The Nibble’s larder. For Simple Nibbles †White taco sauce recipe: Whisk together 1/2 cup sour cream/crema, 1/2 cup mayonnaise/Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon hot sauce, pinch of salt. CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM. |
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