The piña colada is often frowned on by “serious” rum drink enthusiasts, but I think this is unfair. A carefully crafted piña colada combines some of the greatest things on Earth into one incredibly tasty cocktail.

That said, I’ve had some wretched piña coladas. Too sweet, based on some kind of creamy dairy product, too weak, poorly blended… the list goes on. There are a lot of ways to screw up a piña colada, apparently. The reality is, of all the piña coladas I’ve had, my favorite have been my own. I like to make them not to sweet and using fairly simple ingredients, which, really, is how I make everything:

Ingredients required for 1 sizable batch:

• 1 standard sized can of coconut milk, either regular or light (see note)
• 2 tiny cans of pineapple juice, or 1 standard sized can of crushed pineapple
• 1/8-1/4 cup of sugar, depending on your tastes (or you can omit the sugar entirely)
• 4 jiggers of rum (or adjust to your preference)
• Plenty of ice

Place all ingredients in blender. Depending on blender capacity, you may need to run this in batches. Blend until smooth. Best served from vintage ceramic coconut-shaped cups, hollowed-out pineapples, etc.

Note: I don’t like pre-sweetened coconut creme. It’s too sweet and not coconut-y enough for me, plus it always has kind of a weird texture. The best piña coladas are made from frozen coconut milk, but I’ve never found this outside of Hawaii so I make do with canned.