Piña Colada
Note Profile
About
Pina colada is a constructed accord of pineapple over coconut cream, with rum as a hint and vanilla underneath. It is the creamy note of this group: the only one of the five with milk-fat character, and the only one whose weight sits in the base. Two suppliers and one perfumery guide give the same three parts in the same order.
Scent Profile
Tropical throughout, led by ripe pineapple fruity sweetness over a creamy, milky lactonic coconut. Sweet_vanillic sits under both as vanilla pod and caramelised sugar and is what makes the accord last. A light boozy white rum threads through the middle rather than leading. Smaller parts: a nutty coconut-flesh edge, a citrus lift from orange, a faint sour tartness from the pineapple and a trace of the sulphur-ester savouriness that ripe pineapple carries.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Not an extract. It is built from pineapple esters, coconut lactones and a light rum accord over vanilla. The drink it copies is Puerto Rican: cream of coconut, pineapple juice and white rum, blended or shaken with ice. The coconut character comes chiefly from gamma-nonalactone with delta-decalactone behind it; the pineapple from ethyl butyrate, amyl butyrate and ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, with Furaneol for the caramelic edge.
Usage in Perfumery
A heart-to-base gourmand for tropical and solar compositions. Perfumers use it where a fruit note alone would be thin, because the lactones give it body and hold it on skin for hours. It pairs with white florals, sun-cream salicylates and light musks. The same construction appears in fine fragrance as coconut paired with lime and rum, which is the Caribbean-cocktail idea without the pineapple.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Piña Colada
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Piña Colada appears prominently.
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