Elements: Cream of Coconut

It’s hard to imagine the Piña Colada without its signature character of lusciously creamy coconut. But it wasn’t always that way; before it became a beloved frozen pineapple-coconut concoction, the tropical drink—whose name translates from Spanish to “strained pineapple”—was simply made with pineapple, rum, sugar, and ice. The crucial addition of cream of coconut to the recipe in 1954 helped launch the Piña Colada as a modern classic, the official drink of Puerto Rico, as well as the must-have sipper for vacationers. For that, we can thank University of Puerto Rico agriculture professor Ramón López Irizarry, who invented Coco López in 1949.

Nowadays, cream of coconut—not to be confused with the unsweetened coconut cream used in cooking savory dishes—has moved beyond the Piña Colada. Coco López has been joined more recently on the shelf by brands such as Coco Reàl, and bartenders are now experimenting with their own recipes for the ingredient, while capitalizing on coconut’s universal appeal to introduce new flavors, lighten a cocktail, and offer a vegan-friendly alternative to cream. “I love using coconut in cocktails that have abrasive or challenging ingredients, because it’s the bridge for comfort that gets people to try new flavors,” says Ran Duan of Blossom Bar in Boston. “It’s the gateway ingredient that everyone loves.”

Shawn Lickliter of République in LA swaps out heavy cream for the lighter cream of coconut in his version of the dessert cocktail, Brandy Alexander. “Cognac pairs especially well because it already has hints of pineapple, white grapefruit, and chocolate, so it’s delicious with coconut!” he says. In his Coco Alexander, “The Cognac stands up more and is being complemented by the other two ingredients, as opposed to being sweet and milky.”

Allan Katz, bartender and co-owner of Jammyland in Las Vegas, creates his own cream using condensed coconut milk. “It gives the vegans a win, and it’s coconut on coconut on coconut flavor.” Katz says it’s worth doing the extra work of making your own cream of coconut. The payoff is added freshness, he says, “and the stability to be a base for great frozen cocktails or a substitute for heavy cream.”