When Piña Coladas And Corona Come Together, Magic Happens

Summer and social media are the perfect pairing to bring about some of the most innovative cocktails. The latest boozy beverage that's gone viral has us humming a mash-up of Jimmy Buffet's "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere" and Rupert Holmes' "Escape." It's called a Corona colada, an homage to the piña colada, and it combines all the fruity flavors of a colada in a bottle of Corona beer.

The pina colada's genesis can be traced all the way back to 1954 when bartender Ramon "Monchito" Marrero crafted the first of its kind at the Caribe Hilton in Old San Juan, Puerto. It quickly caught fire and gained a reputation for being served at beach resorts and spring break in Fort Lauderdale. But that stigma is quietly fading, and this Corona Colada riff is positive proof that the piña colada is back, re-imagined, and here to stay. To make this seasonal sensation, you can skip the roar of the blender and the clinking of the ice, but you will need a bottle of Corona, some white rum, coconut cream, pineapple juice, and a slice of lime.

To get started, you are going to have to take one for the team and either chug about half the bottle of your ice-cold Corona, or you can pour it into a glass to drink a little later. It's your choice, but either way, once you've made some room in the bottle, you are going to add all your ingredients to the remaining Corona in the bottle. A note of caution: Whenever you add something to a carbonated drink, it gets pretty fizzy, so be aware of the fizz factor.

Once all the ingredients have been added, place your thumb over the bottle opening, and shake it. This will cause it to foam up even more, creating a creamy drink that will make you feel like you're on a tropical vacay. If you love the rich coconut taste that a traditional piña colada offers and want to make the flavor more intense in your Corona colada, you can add coconut rum in place of the white rum. Or, try a little banana-flavored rum instead and your drink might remind you of a banana daiquiri.

If you are a Corona drinker and enjoy the Corona colada, there are plenty of other cocktail riffs you can try using this favorite beer as the base. If you like sipping on a tequila sunrise, a bottle of Corona is the perfect base to create a Corona sunrise by adding tequila, orange juice, and grenadine. Or if in your youth you were rocking the blue Hawaiian cocktail, just add some white rum, pineapple juice, Blue Curaçao, and cream of coconut to your half drank bottle of beer, shake it like a Polaroid picture, and you are in business.

The beauty of these drinks is you don't need any special bar tools or cocktail glasses to make them, and you can eyeball the amount of juice and alcohol to add. This means you can create a DIY cocktail table for your pool party or backyard barbecue without having to put out anything out than your bottles of beer and other ingredients. Easy-peasy.