Piña Verde
Blend ∙ 4 min ∙ 11.5% ABV ∙
The Piña Verde is a frozen blend of green Chartreuse, pineapple juice, cream of coconut and lime — a tiki riff built on an herbal liqueur instead of rum. Icy and thick like a frozen daiquiri, with a slick coconut richness balanced by sharp lime tang and a lingering herbal warmth on the finish.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Blend all ingredients with a scoop of crushed ice: Herbal liqueur (e.g., Green Chartreuse) 45 mlPineapple juice 45 mlCream of coconut 20 mlLime juice 15 ml
- Pour into the chilled glass
- Garnish with a mint sprig
Tips
- Pre-chill the Collins glass before pouring so the frozen texture doesn't start melting on contact.
- Blend just until smooth; over-blending warms the mixture and thins the frozen consistency.
History
The Piña Verde was created by San Diego bartender Erick Castro at his bar Polite Provisions. Castro's idea began as a bartending trick of floating green Chartreuse over a Piña Colada, and when he later worked as a Beefeater Gin brand ambassador he experimented with swapping the rum for gin before realizing what he really liked was the interplay between the Chartreuse and coconut. He eventually dropped the base spirit entirely and let the herbal liqueur take its place, a drink that debuted on the Polite Provisions menu and that staff there nicknamed the "Greenya Colada." Sources place its creation anywhere from around 2010 to 2014, and it later spread to other cocktail bars on the East Coast.
The drink is a riff on the Piña Colada, the Puerto Rican pineapple-coconut-rum cocktail whose own invention is disputed among several claimants. Piña Verde keeps the pineapple juice and coconut cream of that original but swaps out the rum for green Chartreuse, giving it a stronger herbal, botanical edge in place of the classic's rum-forward sweetness.
