Piña coladas are my summer-time splurge.  I love the combination of coconut and pineapple — it’s just so delicious.  Even if I’m not on a tropical island or on vacation, this drink helps me pretend that I am!

I thought I’d try my hand at a piña colada-like smoothie — or what I like to call my Tropical Thai Coconut Smoothie!

I recently discovered young Thai coconuts, and I thought they would be perfect for my concoction.  In addition to the Thai coconut water and pulp, I incorporated frozen pineapple, some honey (for sweetness), vanilla extract (to mimic the flavor of vanilla ice cream) and a hint of lime.   And, voila, my version of a piña colada (a healthier version) was born!

You can modify the recipe by adding half of a frozen banana or one cup of kale.  You can also add some rum! (which REALLY made it taste like a piña colada).

We used a Coco Jack opener to help us dismantle our Thai coconut. If you don’t have a Coco Jack opener, you can certainly use coconut water.  In fact our favorite brand of coconut water can be found in our shop!

Check out the photos below for more details on how we managed to open our Thai coconut.

Tropical Thai Coconut Smoothie
Yields between 4 and 5 cups

2 cups of fresh Thai coconut water (which seems to be the standard yield from a fresh Thai coconut), plus the pulp of one Thai coconut
1 cup of frozen pineapple
1 cup of ice
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Some optional ingredients:
1/2 frozen banana (please note, bananas are very sweet and potent, so use sparingly)
1 cup of fresh kale

Add all of the ingredients to the base of a blender (I used a Vitamix) and blend until smooth.  Portion into glasses, or back into the Thai coconut, and enjoy!