• Colombia Shakira and Piqué, the Caribbean of 'The bicycle' to which they will not return together
  • Jordan The best preserved city of the Roman Empire in the world (after Pompeii)

The success of piña colada around the world is due to Mr. Monchito, one of the waiters at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, who won the contest organized by the hotel in 1954 to create the perfect combination with which to welcome its guests. There was plenty of rum on the island, so Don Ramón Marrero (as the employee was actually called) added generous doses to his creation. Also juice (here, juice) of pineapple, coconut milk and sugar.

With this mixture he would go down in the history of the country and the entire planet. The establishment had opened six years earlier, in December 1949, being the first of the renowned chain outside the continental United States. Conrad Hilton, founder of the brand, had won the contest organized by the local government (specifically, the Industrial Development Company of Puerto Rico), to modernize the island. The objective was to build a "tropical hotel" that would attract international tourism.

Panoramic view of the hotel of the invention.

The building was required to have about 300 rooms. Currently, it has 652 in the Condado Lagoon Villas building plus another tower with 96, since it has been expanded over time. A curiosity in all of them: the classic bottle opener has the shape, as it could not be otherwise, of piña colada. Another of the conditions imposed by the authorities was that the new complex was located in the vicinity of the fort of San Jerónimo, on the idyllic beach of Escambrón.

Not surprisingly, this area remains one of the most pleasant places in the capital, halfway between the old area, that of Old San Juan, and the new, just in front of the commercial, financial and tourist district of the County, with its reasonable resemblance to the Bay of Miami. "Mr. Hilton sent a proposal in Spanish that began by saying 'Dear friend' and triumphed among those responsible, who saw it as a point in their favor," says Ana del Amo, Marketing Director of the hotel, considered a classic of the Latin American state.

Corner in honor of the inventor, Mr. Monchito.

What's more, there is no self-respecting event that is not celebrated in it, either in its swimming pools on the beach, in any of the 10 restaurants available (there is everything: local, Mexican, Italian, carnivore cuisine ...) or in its multipurpose lobby, which hosts a parade of models as well as a dance or a solidarity market.

The inauguration was attended by personalities of the moment such as the businessman John Davison Rockefeller himself or the actresses Gloria Swanson and Elizabeth Taylor. She even spent her honeymoon with her first husband, son of the patriarch Conrad. Also Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony or Bad Bunny have slept in their suites and, of course, tried their piña colada.

Hotel maid with different drinks, including piña colada.

Keep in mind that Monchito spent three months finding the perfect formula for the combination. It went so well that Hollywood legend Joan Crawford went so far as to declare that drinking it was much "better than slapping Bette Davis." Marrero had time to perfect it, since he worked as a waiter at the Caribe Hilton for more than 35 years and today an image of him pays tribute to him in the hotel lobby, next to the recipe of the drink that he himself devised.

For something this is the official national drink of Puerto Rico with permission of rum, one of the main export items of the Caribbean country. Tell that to the Americans, who consume 90% of what they produce here. Be that as it may, the piña colada even has its own international day: July 10, which is celebrated in style with contests, parties, dances and, of course, various tastings.

On-site beach in Condado.

What is clear is that it is one of the hallmarks of this Caribbean corner of Latin soul, despite its belonging to the United States since Spain had to cede it after 400 years of domination by losing the war against the American giant in 1898. Of course, the authorship of the piña colada has always unleashed doubts. Some say that it was one of the many pirates who arrived in these parts, Roberto Cofresí, who in the early nineteenth century offered a similar concoction based on pineapple and rum to his sailors to encourage them in their attacks.

Another worker at Caribe Hilton, Ricardo García, even said that in 1954 he also came up with a refreshing recipe similar to Marrero's as a result of a shortage of coconut that forced him to improvise. Even in a mythical bar in Old San Juan, Barrachina, they claim that their waiter, Ramón Portas Mignot, gave birth to the drink, but in a beaten version. Monchito's had a lot of ice and was served inside a pineapple. In Barrachina they talk about the year 1963, so the dates do not add up, since the combined hotel dates back to 1954. That does not mean that at the entrance of the establishment there is a plaque that recalls that this was the place of birth.

The classic drink.

It is true that, in 2004, the Caribe Hilton received a proclamation signed by the then governor of the country, Sila María Calderón, which supported the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the cocktail at this hotel. In short, the piña colada is and always will be Puerto Rican. Period.

| Learn more. On the websites of the Caribe Hilton hotel (www.caribehilton.com) and Discover Puerto Rico (www.discoverpuertorico.com), a private and non-profit organization that promotes tourism on the island in collaboration with public or non-public entities.

You can follow El Mundo Viajes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

  • America
  • Puerto Rico
  • Tourism

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more