This St Kitts Beach Bar Has Reinvented the Piña Colada — And It's one of the Best in the Caribbean
If you like piña coladas, keep reading. (I’ll ask later about getting caught in the rain).
I like them. Quite a bit. I’ve had them all over the Caribbean, from their birthplace in San Juan (yes, I prefer Barrachina to the Caribe Hilton) to just about every beach bar you can think of.
They’re an excellent, classic cocktail. But they also very rarely change.
That’s why I was so surprised when I happened upon the Spice Mill beach bar on Cockleshell Bay in St Kitts.
Spice Mill always been one of the island’s signature watering holes — and it now even has its own rum company, HiBiscus Spirits. But what’s really exciting is the cocktail-making.
Mixology is an art form here, and the bar is using its on-site HiBiscus spirits to make some really exceptional cocktails – including a regular mixology class you can take right on the beach here.
They range from a popular Mango-Tini to a Rum-Tini to, yes, a brand-new take on the Piña Colada. And that was the one that really blew me away.
HiBiscus has two rum expressions (among some tequila and gin, too):a spiced rum, and a coconut rum. Both are infused with locally-grown Hibiscus calyx, which you may know better as one of the Caribbean’s signature flavors: sorrel. It’s a flavor that works remarkably well in rum and in cocktails, and even better married with coconut. The coconut rum is also blended with Toasted coconut extract made specifically for Hibiscus Spirits.
The latter is, unsurprisingly, the core of this innovative new PC.
They call it the Coconut Colada, and it is, plainly, out of this world.
The recipe? One part sweetened coconut cream; two parts HiBiscus Coconut Cream, one part pineapple juice, and one squeeze of lemon juice. Take the mix and shake it vigorously with ice, and strain.
The result is remarkable: it’s got the core coconut you expect, but with a refreshing, vibrant floral edge; it’s the best piña colada I’ve had in years, and one that almost completely reinvents the genre. It’s the sort of cocktail that has immediately inserted itself in the Caribbean cocktail pantheon.
It’s that good — one that works even better with an afternoon on Cockleshell Bay.
And if you get caught in the rain, well, you can always order another one.