If You Like Piña Coladas

‘If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain…” Rupert Holmes’s 1979 hit is titled “Escape (the Piña Colada Song)” but the Escape part was soon dropped as the tune came to be known by its repeated reference to Puerto Rico’s national cocktail.

It wasn’t the first ode to a pineapple/ coconut cooler. In the late 1940s, saxophonist and bandleader Charlie Ventura recorded one of those painful bebop numbers full of scat-sung “oodly-oos” and “ee-bopity-boos.” He called it “Piña Colada.”

This presents a problem for the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which lays claim to the drink, asserting in elaborate lobby wall art that the drink was invented there in 1954. The credit is given to barman Ramon “Monchito” Marrero, who set out to “create a drink that captured the unique flavors of the island.”

But how was the drink invented in 1954 when it was being oo-bop-sha sung about in the ‘40s?

It would seem the answer is found in the nonalcoholic juice-drink business that flourished in dance halls and sidewalk stands all through the war years, and for some time after that. Typical is an advertisement in Billboard magazine in 1948: “PROFIT SENSATION” blares the ad copy. “Buy from the pioneers in the syrup business … Every customer a satisfied one.” Among the flavors offered are “Grape Champagne made from pure grape juice” and “Piña Colada made from fresh pineapple.” (The “fresh” juices were made by adding water to canned syrup — Gordon Ramsay, avert your eyes.)

The popular juice drink of the ’40s called piña colada was a jumping-off point for the pineapple and coconut concoction that was being served at the

Caribe Hilton by the mid-’50s. The Hilton recipe calls for 2 ounces of white rum, 1 ounce of coconut cream (such as “Coco Lopez”), 1 ounce of heavy cream, and 6 ounces of fresh pineapple juice. It all goes into a blender with a half-cup of crushed ice. Blend away until it is thick and frothy, pour it into a highball glass (not a stemmed goblet, please), and garnish with a slice of pineapple and a maraschino cherry.

To its credit, the ocean-front bar at the Caribe Hilton puts no little effort into making its signature drink. Sweet and creamy, it is everything people like about this particular tropical treat.

Then again, sweet and creamy, it is everything cocktail sophisticates deride in tropical concoctions. Take rumophile Wayne Curtis. In the back of his 2006 book And a Bottle of Rum, Curtis lists a few dozen recipes for historically prominent and/or popular drinks made with rum. The recipe for piña colada is offered with a simple statement of droll disdain: “If you must.”

The piña colada is what was once dismissively labeled (when one could say such things without inciting the wrath of Twitter) a “girly drink.” But at least the Caribe Hilton makes a first-rate girly drink.

Making a colada crawl around San Juan recently, I found that the drink has been reimagined and redeemed by the barmen at La Factoria, the best bar on the island. Their artisanal approach was to get rid of the cream, get rid of the slush, and add some bitters to balance the sweetness. They were kind enough to share their recipe:

La Factoria’s Piña Colada Ingredients:

— 1 ½ ounces of well-aged rum — 2 ounces of pineapple juice — 1 ounce of Coco Lopez

— 1 dash of Angostura bitters

Directions:

— Shake vigorously with ice

until very cold

— Strain into a highball glass

with ice

— Garnish with a slice

of dehydrated pineapple

La Factoria may not have invented the piña colada, but it has perfected it.

Eric Felten is the James Beard Awardwinning author of How’s Your Drink?