Grilled Pineapple Pina Coladas

I have a very odd relationship with pina coladas. While I absolutely love pineapples, I grew up with a raging hatred of coconuts. A Malayali who hates coconuts – I was a shame to my people! Despite my hatred, coconuts followed me everywhere! I was the only kid from Kerala at my high school and our farewell party was cocktail themed. I was named Miss Pina Colada presumably because it was a coconut milk based cocktail and as we all know, all Keralites are basically 20% coconuts already (oil, milk, chutney, curry, desserts it’s everywhere!).

Needless to say when I hit the drinking age I didn’t live up to my title. Sure I eventually got over my irrational hatred of coconut but that wasn’t until much later. Even so I still hadn’t tried a pina colada. But then I found out that I was born on National Pina Colada Day and well, that kinda sealed the deal for me. Thank god it did because I loved it and here we are with my own recipe for Pina Coladas!  

Pineapples are notoriously difficult to clean. When I lived in the city I would get pre-cleaned pineapples which makes this recipe really easy. Out here we mostly get our pineapples from local vendors and while the downside is that you have to clean it yourself, the upside is that it’s freshly harvested, organic and totally worth it for recipes such as this one that champion the pineapple. We save our pineapple crowns and re-plant them in the garden. Pineapples can take quite a while to grow – sometimes 2 -3 years, but my god, the one pineapple we grew was the sweetest I’ve ever had! It was tiny and barely enough for one but boy did we enjoy it.

How to Grill a Pineapples for Pina Coladas

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Why add plain fresh pineapple when you can grill them! This extra step makes the pineapples sweeter and smokier, adding more depth of flavour to the final drink. I never thought I’d use a tandoor to make a cocktail but this has already become my favourite recipe with the Sanjeev Kapoor Tandoor Ultima. All you have to do is plug it in and you’re good to go!

You can also use a cast iron grill pan like this one from The Indus Valley. Just place it on a stovetop and let it get really hot. A BBQ grill set works wonderfully and you can also use a regular cast iron pan if you don’t have a grill. I use a papad jali to grill peppers and aubergine on an open flame and that should ideally work for the pineapples as well. If you don’t have any of these then you can just skip the grilling step and blend your pineapples fresh. You won’t get that smoky flavour but it’ll still be delicious!

One quick grilling session later, I was left with a pile of delicious grilled pineapple that I had to control myself from eating as is! Reserve a few best looking pieces for garnish and transfer the rest to a powerful blender along with the pineapple juice and basil leaves. I like the extra fibre so I never strain the juice and recommend you don’t either.

Once you have your blended juice ready all you have to do is add the coconut milk and rum and refrigerate. The rum is totally optional and even though I love a boozy afternoon cocktail, a virgin pina colada is one of the few mocktails I actually love! Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of alcohol according to your preference.