The Best Piña Coladas Should Be Made Like This

Was there ever a more classic beach drink than the Piña Colada? Like the Blue Hawaii, it dates back to the 50s, when enterprising bartenders in Puerto Rico blended newly available cream of coconut with rum and pineapple juice.

Also like the Blue Hawaii, the Piña Colada has become corrupted by cheap spirits and shit mixers—the equivalent of powdered nondairy creamer in a cup of instant coffee. It might approximate the original, but it's nothing like it.

Our recipe—graciously shared by New Orleans restaurant and rum-based bar Cane & Table—goes back to basics by starting with a whole fresh young coconut.

You'll also require a meat cleaver or machete—which, if you're a regular reader of MUNCHIES, we pretty much assume you have at the ready at all times—to crack open your coconut.

You're essentially making your own fresh coconut milk (don't tell Rihanna) and blending it with top-notch rum and frozen pineapple. Not a complex operation, but a theatrical one.