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On the Mainland I almost never drink Piña Coladas. However. The very moment when my toe beans touch Borinquen land, there seems to be no limit. For you lovely readers in the frigid Mainland, I come to you with something to dislodge the ice sheets wedged between your shoulder blades. I spent a few days in early Q1 in Puerto Rico, as I have done in years past. As a Mainlander with Latino roots I have always been captivated with La Isla del Encanto, and not just because of the weather. The intoxicating blend of natural splendor, Caribbean gastronomy, and American Latinidad, makes for a delicious cocktail indeed. The Piña Colada was supposedly first mixed up at the fashionable Caribe Hilton, in 1950s San Juan. Though legends tell of Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí mixing up a boozy prototype in the early 1800s. A variant of the maritime grog, one assumes, using the indigenous fruit available. Recipes are riffs and timestamps of a larger cultural legacy. They have no authors nor should they. When I returned to the Northeast after a glorious week under the San Juan skies and I realized we had many more weeks of gloom ahead, I started vacationmaxxing with the rum on my home bar. And I whipped something up for those without access to coconuts. A colada for gringos with what's in dry storage. Something tropical. Something sweet. Something titillating for our last day of winter. Cheers.
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