piña verde

1 1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Whip shake with crushed ice, pour into a double old fashioned glass, and top with crushed ice. I found two garnish directions and chose the former: mint sprig (Punch & Liquor.com) or pineapple frond and lime wheel (Imbibe and Robert Simonson's Modern Classic Cocktails book).

With pineapple juice and cream of coconut in the house, I finally decided to make the Piña Verde created by Erick Castro. I had put it off previously to conserve my strategic Chartreuse resources, but I felt it was time. Erick was quoted in Robert Simonson's Modern Classic Cocktails as saying, "I first started with the move of floating Green Chartreuse over Piña Coladas" in the late 00s. When he was the Beefeater brand ambassador in 2010 and wanted to make an herbaceous gin-based Piña Colada, he found the magic resided in the Chartreuse accent's combination with the coconut and soon switched to Chartreuse as the base spirit. The drink found a home in 2012 when Erick helped to open Polite Provisions in San Diego, and it truly took off when it hit the menu at Boiler Maker that Erick helped to open with Greg Boehm in 2014. According to Punch, the drink also gained momentum when trendsetter Sam Ross at Attaboy started making them after he found the recipe on the Internet in 2016. Sam was intrigued by the combination for he enjoys eschewing standard base spirits for amari, herbal liqueurs, and fortified wines. While Sam was making them as dealer's choice at the menu-less Attaboy, he pushed the drink further by gaining Erick's permission to put it on the menu at the Palazzo in Las Vegas in 2018. Moreover, the rising obsession in all things Tiki also helped the Piña Verde become a modern classic. When I wrote Erick in regards to the two garnish instructions that I found, he replied, "Either one is fine, so I guess both are canon lol". Once prepared as a shaken drink (blended is also a popular option), the Piña Verde welcomed the senses with a mint aroma. Next, a creamy pineapple and lime sip developed into herbaceous and pineapple flavors all mollified by the coconut's creaminess. Overall, the Piña Verde felt like the coconut cousin of the Chartreuse Swizzle.