Easy, Creamy, Frozen Piña Colada

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This frozen piña colada recipe is creamy, not too sweet and doesn’t require a fancy cocktail blender! Just follow my simple technique and use any smoothie blender, food processor or standard upright blender – heck, you could even use an immersion blender to create these silky-smooth, tropical cocktails!

3 piña coladas in coup glasses, garnished with a lime and flowers on a table.

Contents hide

1 Why This Recipe is Special

2 Ingredient Notes

3 How to Make This Recipe

4 A Few Common Questions

5 A Few Tips

6 Easy, Creamy, Frozen Piña Colada

I absolutely LOVE tropical cocktails! I spent last summer putting spins on margaritas and coming up with as many pineapple cocktail recipes as I could. But this year, I’ve decided to master the frozen piña colada! I have to admit, although it was a tasty process, it wasn’t an easy one…

I have a big blender, but it doesn’t blend ice nicely. If I add ice cubes to it, it just chops them coarsely. It turns any cocktail into a chunky, watery drink that melts quickly. So, after some experiments and trying things a little differently, I finally figured out how to make creamy, frozen piña coladas another way – then, it was just a matter of getting the ingredients just right!

I know what you’re thinking. “But how!?” It’s so easy! All you need are 6 ingredients, 12 hours, a large ziplock bag, any blender at all, and a few gentle karate chops.

Why This Recipe is Special

It’s easy to make for a big crowd – this recipe makes 4 cocktails, but since cans of coconut milk are usually about 14 ounces, you can use the whole thing and easily double the other ingredients in this recipe to make 8-10 cocktails.

This recipe is less sweet than the traditional recipe – I like my piña coladas less sweet than the traditional recipe, so it includes less sweetened cream of coconut.

You seriously can use any kind of blender! – A Vitamix, Magic Bullet, NutriBullet, food processor, immersion blender – any blender at all is good enough to make these creamy, silky-smooth, tropical cocktails!

Ingredient Notes

Ingredients for piña coladas on a table with titles.

cream of coconut – make sure to look carefully when you’re buying “cream of coconut.” It’s not “leche de coco” or “coconut cream.” Cream of coconut is a sweetened coconut syrup/cream and not coconut milk. If you want to use the most traditional cream of coconut for piña coladas, use Coco Lopez.

coconut milk – you want to only use canned, full-fat coconut milk. Not a bottled brand that you find in the beverage aisle.

white rum – make sure to just use plain, white rum, and not a coconut flavored rum like Malibu.

pineapple juice – I used an organic brand but you can use canned or boxed, Dole pineapple juice and it will be just as tasty.

water – If you want to make your piña coladas a bit sweeter and more coconut-y, use a tasty coconut water instead. My favorite is Taste Nirvana coconut water! I don’t have any affiliation with them, it’s just honestly my very favorite!

lime – that’s fresh lime juice. Not bottled.

How to Make This Recipe

A collage of 4 numbered images showing how to make frozen piña coladas.

1. Place a large ziplock bag into a large bowl (I find this helps to keep the bag open without spilling).

2. Vigorously shake a can of coconut milk. Open and pour 7 oz. coconut milk into the plastic bag. Then, pour 6 oz. white rum, 3 oz. cream of coconut, 6 oz. pineapple juice, 8 oz. water and juice from ½ lime.

3. Seal the bag and place it in the freezer. If you can lay it flat, it will be ready in about 12 hours. If it’s sitting up, it will take a full 24 hours to be ready.

4. Remove the bag and use your hands to break the ingredients up a little inside the bag (with it still closed). Give it a few gentle karate chops and a quick massage. You don’t want it to melt too much. Pour into any blender and blend. Pour directly into your glasses and serve.

A piña colada cocktail being poured out of a container into a garnished coup glass on a table.

A Few Common Questions

1. What’s the traditional piña colada recipe?

The traditional recipe includes more cream of coconut, so it’s considerably sweeter than my recipe. If you want to make this recipe as sweet as you’ve probably had it in a restaurant, the ratio will be 6 oz. coconut cream, 6 oz. coconut milk, 6 oz. pineapple juice, 6 oz. white rum, 8 oz. water and juice from ½ lime. Also, use the Coco Lopez brand of cream of coconut.

2. Can I re-freeze extra piña colada?

Sure. It will just become more solid the longer it’s frozen, and will just need to be massaged a little more when you’re ready to serve.

3. What glass should I serve the cocktail in?

The traditional piña colada glass is called a “poco grande” or “hurricane” glass. It’s a bell-shaped glass with a wider rim. It’s used to serve piña coladas as well as other frozen tropical drinks. If using this glass, serve with straws. However, it’s also acceptable to serve this cocktail in highball glasses and even coup glasses if you don’t have straws, or want to keep servings smaller.

A Few Tips

1. If you want to add more pineapple flavor: add a few fresh chunks of pineapple to the blender with the rest of the frozen mixture before blending.

2. If you want to add more coconut flavor: add ⅛ tsp. quality coconut extract.

3. A few ways to dress it up:

add a dash of Fernet on top
add a dash of dark rum on top
add a few flakes of toasted coconut on top
add a dollop of coconut whipped cream
make a “half pineapple” piña colada. Blend half of your piña colada mixture as is and set aside. Then, add a few pineapple chunks to the remaining mixture and blend. When serving, pour half of the pineapple mixture and then pour the other mixture on top!

4. A few garnish suggestions:

small slices of pineapple
slices of lime
zest a little lime on top of the cocktails
pineapple flowers
pineapple leaves
a cherry
tropical cocktail umbrellas
rim the glass with toasted coconut by first rubbing lime around the rim, then dipping the glass in coconut.

The tops of 2 piña coladas with lime-flower garnishes on a table with a slice of lime.

Help Yourself to More Tropical Cocktails

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