The Easiest Piña Colada Recipe
When I think about a vacation, I always think about frozen piña coladas, and well, margaritas. You don’t need a tropical vacation to bring cool, creamy, coconutty, and refreshing piña coladas into your life. All you need is a warm summer day or maybe just a daydream that you’re going on a tropical vacation to get inspired to make these easy piña coladas. These homemade piña coladas are just sweet enough but not too sweet because there’s no “piña colada mix” used. That’s the stuff that can tend to make a piña colada taste fake or overly sweet but I avoid it in my homemade piña colada recipe. I like to make a blender batch that serves about four at one time, but you can always scale this recipe down. Time to get tropical!
Ingredients in Piña Coladas
To make quick and easy piña coladas at home, you only new a handful of common ingredients including the following:
White rum (or omit for virgin piña coladas)Pineapple juiceCream of coconutPineappleIceMaraschino cherries, optional for garnishingPineapple wedges, optional for garnishing
What Alcohol Is Used in Piña Coladas?
You’ll want to use rum, specifically white rum, to make the best piña coladas. White rum has a lighter flavor because it hasn’t been aged. Aged rum will work in piña coladas, but it’s stronger in flavor and may overwhelm the pineapple flavor. Do not used spiced rum for this recipe.
How to Make Piña Coladas
It doesn’t get any easier to make a batch of easy frozen piña coladas in a blender!
How to Make Virgin Piña Coladas
You can keep this easy piña colada recipe virgin by simply omitting the rum. If necessary, in order to get the blender moving and for overall texture consistency, replace the rum with pineapple juice as necessary noting that your pineapple coladas will be sweeter. Also make sure to check out my Piña Colada Smoothie recipe, which is virgin.
Adjusting the Serving Size
As I mentioned, my recipe for easy pineapple piña coladas in a blender makes a batch. You could probably stretch the yield a bit, but the recipe comfortably serves 4, and less than 4 if your glassware is on the bigger size. I like to make a batch at once because it’s a little annoying to have to get up and re-blend drinks after already doing it once, but if you’re convinced you need less, then halve the recipe.
Can This Recipe Be Made in Advance?
No, piña coladas are always best when served right away!
Tips for the Best Homemade Piña Coladas
Anytime you’re making a blended frozen drink the exact amount of ice needed can vary a bit. My suggestion is 4 cups of ice but this will vary on the exact size of the ice cubes. If your homemade blended pina coladas are coming out a little runny, add more ice. If you accidentally added too much ice and they’re too thick, adding a splash more pineapple juice (or more rum if you’re like me) will smooth out it out. If you’re like me and have a kitchen full of wine glasses but don’t have a hurricane glass, never fear. Your homemade blender pina coladas will taste just as good out of a wine glass. Or use a plastic tumbler if you’re going to be drinking these outside or poolside. Garnishing pina coladas with a maraschino cherry is the best part for me, but of course this is optional, as is a pineapple wedge on the side of the glass.
More Easy Cocktail Recipes:
Homemade Margaritas — How to make a margarita with just three natural ingredients! Nothing fake, neon green, and no sugary chemicals. This is the best homemade margarita recipe I’ve tried and it’s the easiest!! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! Beer Margaritas — Summer tastes better with a pitcher of these delightful and refreshing beer margaritas are made with Corona, tequila, triple sec, lime juice, agave, and a sugared (or salted) rim! Cheers to beer-garitas! Kiss On The Lips Cocktail — Frozen mango, rum, vodka, peach schnapps, and a KISS of drizzled grenadine!! Fruity, tropical, and they go down way too easily!! Mango Pineapple Frozen Margaritas – No margarita mix and no sugar needed for amazing, easy margaritas that are ready in 30 seconds!! Refills are a must!! Tropical Party Punch — One of my all-time favorite party drinks! Feel free to leave the alcohol out if desired. This punch tastes delicious even without it! Malibu Sunset — A fun, fruity, easy Malibu drink recipe!! Because there’s really no wrong way to do pineapple, orange juice, coconut rum, grenadine, and cherries. If you’ve never had this fruity alcoholic drink before, you should change that!! Chocolate Covered Strawberry Martini – An indulgent chocolate martini that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, date-night-in, or a girls-night-in! Plenty of chocolate flavor in this festive, fun, and easy martini! Tequila Sunrise — Not only is it pretty to look at, but a tequila sunrise is also refreshing, nostalgic, and the grenadine sweetens it up enough that you may not even notice it packs quite a punch!
