Piña Colada Day: What's A Fat-Washed Piña Colada Cocktail And How To Make It?

Celebrate Piña Colada Day with the classic tropical cocktail that has evolved with contemporary bartending. A fat-washed Piña Colada cocktail requires infusing rum with coconut oil before making the drink. The resulting mixture provides fullness, richness and more coconut aroma to your drink without making it oily. While still having the same basic ingredients—rum, pineapple, and coconut—this process gives the familiar drink a unique flavour addition that’s becoming increasingly popular.

Here’s everything you need to know about fat washing a Pina Colada cocktail:

What Is A Fat-Washed Pina Colada Cocktail?

Fat washing is a method of mixing melted fat with a spirit, chilling it until the fat has solidified and straining out the fat. By fat washing a spirit, you can extract fat-soluble flavour components while leaving behind most of the fatty residue. After being popularised with the introduction of fat-washed meat-infused bourbon in the Old Fashioned cocktail, the technique has been used in conjunction with a range of ingredients, including but not limited to butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and coconut oil.

In regard to fat washing a Piña Colada cocktail, it is best to use coconut oil as your fat, as it pairs beautifully with both rum and tropical fruit. The fat-washed rum will develop a creamy texture and will add an understated coconut flavouring to the cocktail while remaining distinctive from each other.

Why Coconut Oil Works So Well

Coconut oil is an aromatic and textural fat; however, it does not add any sweetness to a cocktail as opposed to coconut cream. As a result, when bartenders use unrefined, cold-pressed coconut oil (the best option for maximum coconut character), the end result is an overall rounder body in the rum, while the rum vanilla, oak and fruit notes can still be identified beneath the coconut profile.

How To Fat Wash Rum

The process is straightforward and requires more patience than specialised equipment. 

• Melt coconut oil until fully liquid. 

• Pour the mixture into a sealed container with rum and shake well.

• Let the mixture steep for several hours.

• Refrigerate or freeze until the coconut oil solidifies. 

• Trim off the hardened fat.

• Strain the rum through a coffee filter or cheesecloth until clear.

The finished rum becomes the base for your preferred Piña Colada cocktail recipe, adding a silkier texture and layered coconut aroma.

Building The Cocktail

Instead of a standard rum, the cocktail will be made with fat-washed rum with all of the same components. The tropical fruitiness of the pineapple gives an acidic edge, while the coconut cream adds sweetness and texture. The fat-washed rum blends the flavours together to create a drink that is smooth and has a soft coconut flavour in the glass, while not adding any weight. As a result, contemporary bars often use fresh lime juice to complement the sweetness of this drink.

Conclusion

With the fat-washed Piña Colada cocktail, you see how a bartending technique can take something traditional and create a new visual representation of that same drink, without losing its identity or flavour profile. By fat-washing the rum, you are adding to the aroma of the spirit and still keeping the classic combination of pineapple, rum, and coconut intact. Whether made by an amateur bartender or served in a professional cocktail bar, the fat-washed Piña Colada cocktail provides a unique approach to one of the most famous tropical cocktails in the world.

*Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.