Photo by andreakw, Creative Commons
Did you know that the birthplace of the piña colada was Puerto Rico? This cold, creamy drink made of pineapple juice, rum, and coconut cream has been the official drink of Puerto Rico for decades. I ran across this tidbit of information as I was researching my trip to San Juan. Trouble is, the history of its origins was a little unclear. You see, two different establishments claim to have invented the piña colada: the restaurant, Barrachina, and the hotel, the Caribe Hilton. Prior to my trip, I consulted Marta Albanese of Puerto Rico Tourism to get some clarity about which one was correct.
“The question has never really been settled,” Marta replied. “While the Caribe Hilton received the recognition of being the birthplace of the piña colada by [former governor] Sila Maria Calderon about seven years ago, Barrachina is recognized by many as the original spot where the drink was first served. They even have a marble plaque in front of the restaurant that commemorates the event. I think that in the end, the never-ending feud adds fun to the story of the piña colada.”
So they are like the Red Sox and Yankees of piña coladas. Cool, I thought. I set for myself a mission during my trip: Sample a piña colada from both bars so that I could weigh in on the quality of each.
Well, that plan got blown out of the water almost immediately upon arrival when a local told me absolutely not to waste my time on Barrachina. They serve their piña colada from a machine, he said. I couldn’t believe it. A machine??? Seriously? How can any place take credit for being the birthplace of a drink if they don’t make it from scratch today? I expressed my incredulity.
“Didn’t you see it on Anthony Bourdain?” he asked. No, I did not.
A mojito
I quickly learned to my horror that Barrachina isn’t the only one to cheat when making their drinks. A lot of bars in San Juan serve their drinks from machines, and not just piña coladas, but mojitos as well. Even the frigging Bacardi Rum Factory serves its mojitos from a machine, for crying out loud! Imagine my devastation. I mean, ultimately, who gives a rat’s ass who invented a drink unless the product that is being served to you now is fresh and made from scratch by a talented bartender? Whatever happened to taking pride in craftsmanship?
That’s not to say I didn’t sample my fair share of piña coladas and mojitos, machine-made or not. Alcohol is alcohol, after all. I won’t say that the ones that came out of a machine weren’t perfectly tasty. But so is some jarred salsa I’ve tried; it doesn’t make it right to serve it to customers in a restaurant–especially when you’re charging them $10 for it. Boo on you, tourist traps of San Juan. You’ve taken the fun out of the history of the piña colada.
Photo credit: Photo of pina colada by andreakw, courtesy of Creative Commons.
on Jan 27th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Hah! Who knew the pina colada has such a controversial history?! One good thing about the drink being poured from a machine…no one can cheat you out of a portion size, right?
on Jan 27th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
You know, Candice, after I read your blog post on the pub of 600 beers, I somehow knew you'd be drawn to this article. :-) True enough, I suppose, about the portion sizes, but you also can't see how much alcohol was mixed into the drinks before they were dumped into the machines, either. Call me a purist, but I prefer to see the bartender mixing up the ingredients in front of me.
on Jan 27th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Oh my goodness. Hilarious Gray!
on Jan 28th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Thanks, Chrissy.
on Jan 30th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
It's true, I remember seeing a lot of Pina Colada machines down there. It DOES seem like cheating. But man it's still yummy!
on Feb 5th, 2010 at 5:15 am
I had no idea that the pina colada was from P.R. and what a shame that they've automated themselves. Nothing more disappointing than feeling a country losing their cultural charm by going touristy.
on Feb 5th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Yeah, actually one of the best ones I had came from a machine at this little diner coming down off the mountain at El Yunque.
on Feb 5th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I might be addressing some of this in a future blog post. Stay tuned.
on Feb 11th, 2010 at 3:30 am
Great Article!!!! The ugly truth…
on Feb 11th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Thank you, Bancorat!
on Apr 6th, 2010 at 6:05 am
[...] The bar stools were made of wicker, and the barback was lined with liquor bottles. Sadly, they use a machine to make their pina coladas. I was sitting right next to it. Sigh. In any case, I did quite enjoy my mojito–it was [...]
on May 14th, 2010 at 6:01 am
Does it matter if it's from a machine if it's made with the same recipe (not some concentrate bull)? I mean, some restaurants have to make hundreds of piña coladas an hour. Making each one individually just seems impractical. Mainly, what the machine does is maintain consistency.
on May 14th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Oh, I understand why they do it. I'm just kind of old school about the craft of bartending. I like to see a drink made up fresh for me. Anyone can pour a pina colada from a machine; it requires no skill. Whereas mixing up the perfect drink by hand does.
on May 17th, 2010 at 3:16 am
Imagine they mixed the perfect drink by hand… just for a bunch of people at the same time.
I guess I'd understand the situation better if I thought of a Piña Colada as anything special. I'm Puerto Rican, and I LOVE piña coladas as much as the next girl, but since there was never anything exotic about them when I was growing up, I've never really seen them as a craft drink, unlike say, those fancy martinis at Tantra (a few blocks away from Barrachina).
I'm not defending the use of the machines, btw. I'm just saying it's practical in high-volume restaurants.
on May 17th, 2010 at 3:18 am
Oh, and to address another issue, at least in every place I've drank one or worked at, the alcohol is NOT added to the machine, just the pineapple juice and coconut. Alcohol is usually added by hand.
on May 17th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I guess what it comes down to is when I think of drinks that come out of machines like that, I think “cheap”. Cheap lemonade, watered-down soda or cheap slushies at amusement parks, things like that. It doesn't make me want to write home about them. I don't think I'd have as much issue with it if they were charging cheaper prices for their machine pina coladas, but they're still charging $8 or more, the same I'd pay for a hand-mixed drink. So why wouldn't I just order a hand-mixed drink? I know, it's a weird sticking point for me, but there you have it. We all have our idiosyncrasies, this just happens to be mine.
on Dec 19th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
[...] marker for Barranchina, the disputed birthplace of piña colada. The Caribe Hilton also makes the claim of being the birthplace of [...]
on Mar 5th, 2011 at 10:28 am
[...] marker for Barranchina, the disputed birthplace of piña colada. The Caribe Hilton also makes the claim of being the birthplace of [...]
on May 28th, 2011 at 9:25 am
Well, did you ever have one at the Caribe Hilton?
on Jun 3rd, 2011 at 11:25 am
Yes, I did. It was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off. (That’s a direct quote from my journal.)