How to Make a Watermelon Piña Colada, the Absolute Best Tropical Cocktail for Summer
The world is full of delights that might appear on paper to be redundant but aren’t.
Chocolate and marshmallows. Iced Tea and Lemonade. Batman and Superman. These kinds of like-with-like combinations are everywhere. It’s colloquially insulted as “gilding the lily,” but do it right and we call it synergy. Do it really right, and it becomes a legend.
This is how I feel about the Bitter Watermelon Piña Colada. As the first day of spring is understood to be the day you first drink a Spritz, so true summer begins the moment you take your first sip of a watermelon cocktail. While some cooling foods cut like a knife through summer heat (looking at you, mint), watermelon is on more of a charm offensive, the flavor equivalent of running barefoot through a sprinkler. When someone says “watermelon” and “Piña Colada,” I just hear the word “summer” twice. There’s nothing not to like.
Meanwhile—the Campari Piña Colada has been something of an industry secret for a while. I don’t know where it came from, I only know who told it to me, and that the idea that struck me immediately as brilliant. Campari is most famous for the inimitable Negroni, of course, but it looks great in summer clothes; among its many gifts is its ability to get along with tropical flavors (as in the famous Jungle Bird), and subbing Campari for rum in a classic Piña Colada is a delicious and flamboyantly bitter experience. It may be a touch too sweet and too bitter for a regular audience—it’s more of a novelty, honestly—but the flavors work, and work well.
Click here to read the full article.
Now—what if you put them together? What if you took a standard Piña Colada—rum, pineapple, coconut, and lime, essentially summer in a glass—and added both watermelon and Campari (or its little brother Aperol). Redundant or legendary?
Perhaps you can guess. The experience is like a waterslide—you’re met high up front with the tart lime and orange notes from the liqueur, then the mid-palate explodes with broad juicy watermelon and pineapple and the low harmonies of rum and coconut, and finishes with the textured, grapefruity bitterness from the liqueur. It might seem a cacophony of flavors, but it’s a symphony. There’s a remarkable clarity to it, to say nothing of its intrinsic deliciousness. It really is phenomenal.
Have one whenever you’re in the mood for both refreshment and delight. Let it be the red thing for your red, white & blue ensemble on the 4th of July. Or just have one to experience something that, like Lennon & McCartney or Cheech & Chong, is so synergistic it borders on legendary.
Watermelon Piña Colada
2 oz. Hamilton’s 86 Rum
0.5 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. watermelon juice
1.5 oz. coconut syrup
0.5 oz. Campari or Aperol
0.5 oz. lime
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with crushed ice (or the smallest ice you have), and shake for six to eight seconds. Pour both ice and liquid into a festive tiki glass, add more ice to top, and garnish with a couple mint sprigs. Alternatively, if you prefer it blended, add all ingredients to blender with about 1 cup (~250g) of ice, and blend on high until smooth and garnish with mint sprigs or a slice of watermelon.
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS
Rum: I like Piña Coladas best when the rum has deep low tones, and for that, I generally reach for Demerara Rum from Guyana. The aged El Dorado products are exceptional here—they make a 5, 8, and 12, all of which are great for this (as is the 15 and 21, honestly, but they begin to become cost prohibitive for cocktail work). If I had access to everything I’d grab the Hamilton’s “86 proof” Demerara Rum, which hits just how it needs to and without excess sugar.
Pineapple: The build of this drink is essentially watermelon mostly subbed out for pineapple. I think it tastes better when you still keep some pineapple juice in there, which is why the above recipe keeps a half ounce, but if you don’t have it, you can still make Watermelon Piña Coladas, just include a little more watermelon juice.
Watermelon: My build calls for watermelon juice, which you can make by taking some watermelon and blending it, then straining it. You can just muddle up some watermelon cubes if you want to, but the result will be pulpy. Another option is to blend the whole thing, and the only other thing I’d say in that case is be careful not to add too much ice. You want to drink it, not eat it.
Coconut: Despite its garbage label and ample preservatives, Coco Lopez is still the gold standard of Cream of Coconut. Nothing else I’ve tried has the persistence of flavor you want from something like this. One trick that some people do is blend three parts Coco Lopez with one part unsweetened coconut cream, which adds some authentic nutty mid-tones to the palate. That said, it’s not terribly important, so feel free to just use Coco Lopez if you can’t be bothered.
Bitter Liqueur: I must say, Aperol actually blends better into this drink, the burnt orange more seamless into the watermelon juice, and the bitterness more integrated. That said, Campari lovers will find Campari to be a sharp and satisfying bitterness. Use whichever sounds better to you.
Best of Robb Report
Why a Heritage Turkey Is the Best Thanksgiving Bird—and How to Get One
The 10 Best Wines to Pair With Steak, From Cabernet to Malbec
