Earlier this summer I was visiting some family who live right on a beautiful lake. It was a gorgeous weekend and we all decided to pull out the ol’ margarita blender and whip up some tasty drinks. One of the drinks we made was a delicious, cold, sweet, and smooth Piña Colada.
My fave.
There’s something about the combination of coconut, pineapple, and a little bit of rum that does it for me. It’s just a great mix and always transports me to tropical destinations.
It’s not uncommon knowledge that blended cocktails can be sugar bombs, especially when they have added refined sugar in the form of simple syrup or juices that contain added sugars, Piña Coladas are no exception, as they traditionally contain a coconut cream that has added sugars along with the sweetened pineapple juice.
So, when the lovely Sherrie of With Food and Love invited me to partake in her #DRINKTHESUMMER party, I KNEW I’d be making a Piña Colada… with a little bit of NITK LOVE.
The end of summer is nearing (cue sad violin music) so I wanted to take full advantage of the beautiful seasonal berries we still have available and add some tasty, juicy blackberries to my Piña Colada.
An odd combination? It may seem so, but trust me, these flavours go fantastic together and the muddled blackberries bring in a dose of antioxidants to this more indulgent drink. I searched the grocery stores to find an all natural pineapple juice with NO added sugars and then went with organic full fat (unsweetened) coconut milk to bring in the delicious creamy, coconut touch to these Piña Coladas.
Most traditional Piña Coladas contain quite a bit of sweetened coconut cream, so for my version I used plain coconut milk and scraped some of the coconut cream from the top of the can, then combined it with 1/4 of the liquid from the can. This cut down on the sugar content as well as the fat content by lowering the overall amount of coconut cream in the recipe.
To keep the frosty blended texture, I chose to freeze my pineapple juice in an ice cube tray. That’s what really gives the drink it’s great consistency. A little pour of rum (which is totally optional if you want a virgin drink instead!) and voila! a Healthy Piña Colada!
These delicious Tepache de Piña drink by Nourished Kitchen would also be a delicious drink option for summer, similar to a Pina colada, but infused with cinnamon, star anise, and fermented!
These are an easy, delicious, and mostly healthy way to really “Drink the Summer”!
Check out this great list below to see how a bunch of other fantastic bloggers are doing their #drinkthesummer this year!
- 2 cups pure pineapple juice (no sugar added)
- 2 tablespoons coconut cream (from canned full fat coconut milk)
- ¼ cup coconut liquid (from canned full fat coconut milk)
- ½ cup fresh blackberries
- 1 teaspoon raw honey
- 2 oz white rum (optional)
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted (optional)
- Freeze the pineapple juice in a 16 cube ice-cube try (16 oz total).
- Once frozen, you are ready to make the drinks!
- Place the blackberries in a small bowl and add in the honey then muddle together until the honey is dissolved and you have a muddled blackberry mixture.
- Divide the blackberry mixture between two glasses.
- Add the frozen pineapple "ice cubes" to a blender along with the coconut cream, coconut liquid, and rum (if using).
- Blend until smooth.
- Divide the pineapple coconut mixture between the two glasses to layer over the muddled blackberry mixture.
- Garnish with a couple fresh blackberries and some 1 tablespoon each of toasted coconut (optional, but tastes amazing!).
- Enjoy immediately!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe and you’re able to discover a few more ways to #DRINKTHESUMMER!
Christal
Nutritionist in the Kitch
