Piña Verde Recipe
A Piña Colada built on Green Chartreuse instead of rum: coconut and pineapple wrapped around an intense alpine-herb core.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 16%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Green Chartreuse45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Pineapple juice45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Cream of coconut22 ml (0.7 oz)
- Fresh lime juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a shaker with a little crushed ice.
- Shake briefly to chill and froth.
- Pour into a rocks glass and top up with crushed ice.
- Garnish with a mint sprig.
Garnish
Mint sprig
What it tastes like
The sweetness is pronounced, there is pineapple and passion fruit in it, it has a green, botanical backdrop and the texture is creamy.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Green Chartreuse
- The 55% liqueur French monks make from 130 plants. Nothing really tastes like it and nothing really replaces it; yellow Chartreuse is sweeter and 40%.
- Pineapple juice
- Pineapple juice. It foams on its own when shaken — that creamy head on a tiki drink comes from the pineapple, not from egg white.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
The Story
Created by bartender Erick Castro at Polite Provisions in San Diego in the 2010s, and now a fixture of modern tropical menus.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Piña Verde mixed?
- It is shaken and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Piña Verde?
- Roughly 16% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Piña Verde be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Piña Verde hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.