The non-alcoholic piña colada

The classic comes from Puerto Rico: roughly 2 oz rum, 3 oz pineapple juice and 1.5 to 2 oz cream of coconut, either blended with ice or shaken and poured over crushed ice. Some recipes add lime; most don't, but we think a virgin version needs it. Each part has a job:

• Pineapple brings the fruit, the acidity and most of the liquid.
• Cream of coconut brings sugar, body and that rich coconut flavor. It's the ingredient people most often get wrong.
• Rum adds a little warmth, dilutes the sweetness, and, if it's an aged rum, adds vanilla, caramel and oak that make the drink taste grown-up.
• Ice gives the frozen version its texture and dilutes it to drinkable.

For a zero-proof piña colada, the job list changes slightly:

• Replace the rum's flavor, not its alcohol. You're looking for sugar cane, vanilla, caramel and a little spice. A white rum alternative gives you the cane; a splash of a dark one gives you the depth.
• Add acid. Half an ounce of fresh lime wakes the whole drink up. Without it, pineapple and coconut taste flat.
• Add salt. A small pinch makes the coconut taste more like coconut and the drink taste less sweet. It's the single easiest upgrade.
• Mind the dilution. Without rum there's less liquid in the glass, so a blended virgin piña colada gets thin fast if you add too much ice. Use frozen pineapple for half of the "ice."

This is where the catalogue is thin. We don't list a bottled non-alcoholic piña colada mix or a canned piña colada yet. The nearest ready-made drink is Curious Elixirs No. 2, a spicy pineapple margarita crossed with a ginger Dark 'n' Stormy. It's pineapple-forward, sweet-hot and tart, with no coconut. Pour it over crushed ice with a splash of coconut water if you want a spicy, lighter piña colada cousin.

Supermarket piña colada mixes are sold in the mixer aisle, and they're alcohol-free to begin with, since they're made to have rum added. They're convenient for a party, but most are very sweet and some use coconut flavoring rather than real coconut. If you buy a non-alcoholic piña colada mix, add fresh lime and a pinch of salt, and blend it with frozen pineapple to stretch it.

For the classic, you're better off making it. It takes three ingredients, and a can of Coco López Cream of Coconut is most of the work already done. You control the sweetness.

The rum

This is what separates a virgin piña colada from a pineapple shake. Here's the best non-alcoholic rum for a piña colada, and what each alternative does.

• Lyre's White Cane Spirit is our pick. Sugar cane, caramel and coconut, light and gently spiced, and it's built for a Mojito, Daiquiri or Piña Colada. The coconut note in it doubles up with the cream of coconut, and it's light enough not to muddy the color.
• Ritual Rum Alternative has vanilla, ripe banana, burnt orange and molasses, with Ritual's peppery warmth. That warmth is the closest thing to a real rum's bite, which makes it our pick for the shaken, on-the-rocks version.
• Lyre's Dark Cane Spirit brings caramel, molasses and maple, with vanilla and toasted nuts. On its own it makes a darker, richer drink; half an ounce alongside White Cane gives you the depth of an aged rum.
• Abstinence Cape Spice leads with allspice, cassia and clove, with vanilla and coconut underneath, and no sugar. Use it for a spiced piña colada.
• Lyre's American Malt, a bourbon alternative with vanilla, caramel and oak, is a fair stand-in if it's what you have on the shelf.

The pineapple liqueur

Bartenders often add a little pineapple liqueur to a piña colada to push the fruit. Giffard Alcohol-Free Pineapple is a zero-proof version: ripe, sweet pineapple, made for tiki drinks and Piña Coladas. It's very sweet, so use a quarter to half an ounce and cut back on the cream of coconut a little. It's especially useful when your pineapple juice tastes thin.

The coconut

Getting this right matters more than any spirit. There are three different products with confusingly similar names:

• Cream of coconut is sweetened coconut cream, thick and syrupy, sold in cans near the cocktail mixers. This is what the original piña colada uses, and it's what our recipes mean. Stir or shake the can well first, because it separates.
• Coconut cream is unsweetened, very thick, and made for cooking. Use it and you'll need to add sugar or simple syrup, about half an ounce per drink.
• Coconut milk is thinner and unsweetened. You can make a non-alcoholic piña colada with coconut milk, but it will be lighter and less rich. Add a tablespoon of sugar or maple syrup per drink, and a squeeze more lime. It's also a good option if you want something less sweet.

The best cream of coconut for a piña colada is Coco López, the original ingredient: thick, sweet coconut cream with a vanilla note. Blend it with pineapple juice, ice and a zero-proof rum. Stir the can well first, because it separates, and the texture of the drink depends on it.

The pineapple

Use unsweetened pineapple juice, not "pineapple drink." Cans are fine and very consistent. For the frozen version, frozen pineapple chunks in place of half the ice give you a thicker, fruitier drink that doesn't water down. Fresh, very ripe pineapple, blended and strained, is even better if you have one.

This is our frozen virgin piña colada recipe. The two Lyre's spirits give it cane and caramel, the salt and lime keep it from being too sweet, and the frozen pineapple gives it a thick, smooth texture.

If it's too thick, add a splash more pineapple juice; if it's too sweet, add more lime and a little more salt.

Piña colada mocktail on the rocks

Can you make a piña colada without a blender? Yes, and many bartenders prefer it. Shaking hard with ice whips the coconut into a light foam, and serving over crushed ice keeps it cold without the brain freeze.

Virgin piña colada in a Ninja Slushie or other slushie machine

Slushie machines like the Ninja SLUSHi freeze a liquid base into slush as it churns, so the recipe is different: no ice, and enough sugar that it freezes into soft slush instead of a solid block. Cream of coconut and pineapple juice already have plenty of sugar, which makes a piña colada one of the easiest drinks to run through a machine. Whisk the base well, chill it first, and fill only to the line.

A few things that help with any machine: dissolve the cream of coconut completely before it goes in, or it can clump; don't cut the sugar much, because a less sweet base can freeze too hard; and serve it as soon as it's ready, since slush starts to separate if it sits.

The same base also works in a regular blender. Freeze it in ice cube trays, then blend the cubes with a splash of pineapple juice.

These are the catalogue drinks we'd use in a piña colada, from the rum alternatives to the cream of coconut, plus a tropical ready-made option.

• Painkiller. Add an ounce of orange juice to the on-the-rocks version, and grate plenty of nutmeg over the top. It's the piña colada's spiced, Virgin Islands cousin.
• Strawberry colada. Blend in a handful of frozen strawberries. It's also a halfway point to a frozen strawberry daiquiri.
• Lava flow. Blend strawberries with a little pineapple juice, pour into the glass, then pour the piña colada on top so the red swirls up.
• Spiced colada. Swap the White Cane for Abstinence Cape Spice or Ish Caribbean Spiced and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
• Colada punch. Multiply the slushie base by four, pour it over a big ice block in a punch bowl, and top with soda water just before serving.

Most bars with a blender will make you a virgin piña colada, but zero-proof bars tend to make a less sugary one. These are worth a visit: