The Cocktail Scientist
INTRODUCTION
The Piña Colada, the national drink of Puerto Rico, celebrated by its own holiday on the island every year on July 10th, is a venerated cocktail that immediately brings to mind images of balmy beaches and vacations. The phenotypic properties of the Piña Colada are intense. The rich cream-colored appearance of the cocktail combined with colorful garnishes has an allure, rivaled only by the fragrant pineapple and coconut aromas associated with the drink. While multiple parties lay claim to its invention, no one will dispute that the drink has played its part in cocktail history as it is beloved by people all over the world. And with conjecture about the creator of the original Piña Colada recipe continuing to this very day, mystery and flavor seem to be the most popular growth drivers of this symbolic cocktail.
MATERIALS & METHODS
Caribe Hilton Piña Colada Recipe (1)
- Rum - 2 oz. (60 mL)
- Cream of coconut (Coco Lopez) - 1 oz. (30 mL)
- Heavy cream (optional) - 1 oz. (30 mL)
- Fresh pineapple juice – 6 oz. (180 mL)
- Crushed ice – ½ Cup
Mix the rum, cream of coconut, heavy cream and fresh pineapple juice in a blender. Add crushed ice and blend for at least 15 seconds. Pour in a 12 oz. cocktail glass. Garnish with fresh pineapple, Maraschino cherry and a tiki umbrella.
DISCUSSION
Historical Origin
The debate over who invented the Piña Colada has been going on for over a century. Did Roberto Confresi from Puerto Rico, also known as El Pirata Confresi, first concoct a refreshing drink called the Piña Colada in the early 1800’s for his sea faring pirate crew to cope with the stresses of maritime life? Or was Ramon “Monchito” Marrero Perez, a bartender at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first to create the Piña Colada after being tasked by the hotel to create a signature drink in 1954? Or was it Ricardo Garcia, another bartender at the Caribe Hilton, who created the Piña Colada in the same year, but used coconut juice instead of pineapple juice and served the cocktail in a hollowed-out pineapple? Or perhaps it was Ramon Protas Mingot, the head bartender at The Barrachina in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1963 who created the drink and first titled the cocktail, “The Piña Colada”.
Test tubes of Cocktail Scientist 2
The truth is the term “Piña Colada” had been thrown around quite a few times and documented in written word several times prior to 1954. The first mention of “Piña Colada” was actually in TRAVEL Magazine in 1922 when they printed, “But best of all is a piña colada, the juice of a perfectly ripe pineapple – a delicious drink in itself – rapidly shaken up with ice, sugar, lime and Bacardi in delicate proportions?” (2). The New York Times even wrote an article in 1950 which has fueled even further controversy when it printed, “Drinks in the West Indies range from Martinique’s famous rum punch to Cuba’s piña colada (rum, pineapple, and coconut milk).” (3)
All in all, it is likely all contributed to the invention of the Piña Colada and its famous name. The Piña Colada, like many inventions, is the fortunate benefactor of a concept commonly called in science, “multiple discovery”. Multiple discovery, also called “simultaneous invention”, occurs when a scientist will make a new a discovery which, unknown to him or her, someone else had made years before. Such occurrences suggest that coinciding discoveries become virtually inevitable when prerequisite kinds of knowledge and tools accumulate in man’s cultural store, and when the attention of an appreciable number of investigators becomes focused on a problem or by emerging social needs (4). There are hundreds of examples of multiple discovery in history. Some famous examples include Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz concurrent invention of calculus, and Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray’s unacquainted invention of the telephone. Thus, multiple discovery is not a coincidence, but a pattern within science and innovation.
Flavor Profile
You can taste the exoticness in a Piña Colada in a single sip thanks to 3 key ingredients which each play a part in the architecture of a Piña Colada. Rum, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut are unequivocally important in the final flavor profile of the cocktail.
Rum
The use of a light rum (a low congener rum) has always been preferred, as it allows the other ingredients to present their individual flavors. When heavier rums are substituted for a light rum, the architecture of the Piña Colada takes a sharp turn, as the stronger suite of esters will interfere with the characteristic sweet and creamy richness of the cream of coconut and the vibrant tropical flavor of the pineapple.
Pineapple Juice
The Piña Colada in Spanish translates to “strained pineapple.” A tropical fruit, the pineapple (Ananas comosus) has flesh that is pungent yet fresh when ripe and is the perfect balance between sweet and tart. It is important to use fresh strained pineapple juice when preparing a Piña Colada as the natural sweetness of the pineapple balances the flavor of the cocktail and is not affected by the pasteurization process that canned pineapple juice goes through.
Cream of Coconut
Thanks to Ramón Lopez-Irizarry, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico who was given a grant by the government of Puerto Rico to assist in the development of Puerto Rican industries, we have Coco Lopez, the first branded cream of coconut. Cream of coconut is a blended cream from the hearts of coconuts with the perfect proportion of cane sugar. The result is a processed coconut milk that is thick and heavily sweetened. The addition of cream of coconut not only enhances the cocktail’s flavor but also acts as a foaming (or frothing) agent along with heavy cream if included. Frothing is when the bubbles become trapped inside the cocktail, and this occurs when the cocktail is blended together.
NUTRITION
While a 12 ounce Piña Colada cocktail packs a rather large caloric intake of 465 calories and over 36g of sugar, there is a nutritional upside when drinking this cocktail. Pineapple juice, which makes up 50% of the cocktail, has multiple health benefits. Fresh pineapple juice contains an enzyme called bromelain that helps break down and digest proteins and has been found to have a positive impact on anti-inflammation and stomach health (5). It is important to note that canned pineapple juice does not contain bromelain as the pasteurization process destroys the enzyme. Another positive health benefit of pineapple juice in the cocktail is that pineapple juice contains Vitamin C and beta-carotene, which have been linked to helping fight skin damaged by the sun and overall skin texture. With that said, the acidity in pineapple juice can increase the rate of heartburn or reflux in people with a condition called gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and thus necessary precautions should be taken, as should be when ingesting any cocktail with alcohol (6).
NUTRITION FACTS
(Amount Per 1 Fl oz in a 12 Fl oz Cocktail)
- Calories: 38.75
- Total Fat: 1.44 g
- Cholesterol: 3.42 mg
- Potassium: 26.9 mg
- Sodium: 2.27 mg
- Total Carbohydrates: 3.66 g
- Dietary Fiber: 0.1 g
- Sugar: 3.06 g
CONCLUSION
When Rupert Homes wrote and released “Escape”, the Piña Colada song in 1978, the Piña Colada hit its metaphorical high point in cocktail history. When one hears the lyric, “If you like Piña Coladas/ And getting caught in the rain…” it’s hard to imagine this iconic rum cocktail will ever lose its popularity. Today, thanks to multiple discoveries, the Piña Colada remains a fixture on many cocktail menus all over the world. And whether traveling on vacation or relaxing at home, the flavorful notes and aromatic scent of the Piña Colada cocktail always has a way of transporting your taste buds to a tropical escape.
REFERENCES
Discovering Puerto Rico. (2013). Puerto Rico: Birth Place of the Piña Colada. Retrieved from: https://www.discoveringpuertorico.com/puerto-rico-pina-colada/
Samuel, N. (2015). If You Like Piña Coladas. Potent Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.potentmagazine.com/like-pina-coladas/
New York Times. (1950). At the Bar. April 16th, 1950 (Page T3).
Merton, R. (1963). Resistance to the Systematic Study of Multiple Discoveries in Science. European Journal of Sociology. Vol 4: Issue 2 (pp. 237-282).
Pavan, R., Jain, S., Shraddha, Kumar, A. (2012). Properties and therapeutic application of bromelain: a review. Biotechnology Research International.
MacGill, M. (2018). Everything you need to know about GERD. Medical News Today. Retrieved from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/14085.php
