Pina Coladas with Coconut Rum and Cranberry Juice

To celebrate our last spring break ever post exams, I went on an awesome med school girls-only road trip to a gorgeous beach condo in Florida. Since we were at the beach, we of course needed to make pina coladas. 

Now I don’t really drink which often surprises people given how much I look food and cookin

My very first experience with alcohol was my 8 year old self drinking a very spiked pina colada. My family had gone on a cruise to the Caribbean and our family (all of my siblings very young) somehow ended up on some kind of party boat with unlimited alcohol. I excitedly thought the pina colada was a coconut shake and hastily drank it… until I tasted the rum. Spitting everything out in disgust, my distaste for anything alcohol began then at the tender age of 8.

Since then, I’ve never had a huge fondness for alcohol. It probably isn’t very fair to for my impression of “alcohol tastes bad,” as that party boat pina colada drink wasn’t very good (my mother ended up with a severe headache as she complained since that was “bad quality” alcohol)

However, this pina colada drink is definitely a sweet drink, and I love it that in this version you can hardly taste the rum. Plus the colors are just amazing (like the Florida beach water).

Pina Coladas with Coconut Rum and Cranberry Juice

Ingredients
pineapple juice
coconut rum (optional)
coconut juice
cranberry juice
crushed ice (optional)

Directions
Mix pineapple juice and coconut rum 1:1 and pour into a glass with ice. Add coconut juice in a 4:1 ratio to the pineapple juice. Slowly pour cranberry juice, letting it run down the sides to obtain the separate layers.

I had a lot of fun playing with the layers; the cranberry is quite dense it seems. At first it swirls around, but if you add enough and add it slowly, it gradually sinks to the bottom. In the picture above, you can see our varying successes in making it pretty but it all tastes delicious.