Miami Vice

Few cocktails evoke such a sense of time and place—or earn such strong reactions—as the Miami Vice. The drink is essentially equal parts frozen Strawberry Daiquiri and Piña Colada layered on top of each other. While its origins are murky, it’s thought to have originated in its eponymous city, pre-dating the popular 1980s television series of the same name.

Let’s get this out of the way: The Miami Vice is not meant to be a serious drink. In its original, intended form, it’s the cocktail equivalent of pressing two different buttons on the self-serve soda fountain at a Burger King. It’s also delicious, because Strawberry Daiquiris are delicious, and Piña Coladas are delicious. Both use flavor profiles that complement each other, so of course they taste great in a glass together.

Every comment you hear saying, “Your bartender will hate you if you order this,” misses the point. The Miami Vice came about during an era that saw the proliferation of frozen drink machines, in which the original Frozen Margarita machine (which dates to Mariano’s restaurant in Dallas in 1971) had spread across the hemisphere and was used to pre-batch countless sour-style drinks that could be poured quickly on demand. Ordering a Miami Vice, at the time of its origin, was no less taxing for a bartender than pulling two handles instead of one.

The slushy-machine version is still perfectly acceptable, and arguably an ideal way to enjoy this drink. However, as the decades wore on and bartenders sought to reinvent recipes of the past, new iterations of the Miami Vice that use fresh ingredients began to crop up, which also involved being blended individually to order. These are undeniably more complicated to make, as they essentially involve making two drinks rather than one, but can lead to a much tastier final result.

Should I Make a Miami Vice from Scratch?

If you’ve got a couple frozen drink machines and plan on making enough Miami Vices to justify batching Strawberry Daiquiris and Piña Coladas on tap, there’s little need to bother with the recipe below. However, for those that want to put in the time to make this drink at home for themselves, fresh ingredients that are blended to order can create an entirely different style of drink that offers extra flavor.

Essentially, the difference between the two styles of Miami Vice is akin to ordering a fast-food burger versus one grilled at home—both can be delicious in their own way, and each has its time and place.

Why This Recipe Works

The Miami Vice works for the same reason each of its base drinks, the Strawberry Daiquiri and the Piña Colada, works. It follows the classic sour template of spirit, sweetness, and sour lime juice, but with complementary fruit flavors layered in.

When it comes to flavor pairings in both the culinary and drinks world, there’s an old saying, “What grows together goes together.” This is particularly true in the world of tropical fruits, where it’s easy to mix and match produce while always finding a winning combination. Strawberry, pineapple, coconut, lime, and sugar cane-based spirits are all naturally complementary, and you can get away with a lot of tweaking by changing ratios or substituting other similar fruits to taste. 

If you’ve got a blender, a bit of extra time, and don’t mind putting in the work to make one of the most purely refreshing smoothie-like cocktails ever created, here’s how to create the Miami Vice yourself.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces rum, divided
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• 1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup
• 2 ounces cream of coconut
• 2 ounces pineapple juice
• Garnish: pineapple slice

Steps

1. In a blender, add 1 ounce of the rum, strawberries, lime juice, simple syrup and 1 cup crushed ice and blend until smooth.
2. Pour into a hurricane glass and set in the freezer.
3. Wash and dry the blender thoroughly.
4. In the clean blender jar, add the remaining 1 ounce of rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice and 1 cup crushed ice and blend until smooth.
5. Pour into the hurricane glass that already contains the Strawberry Daiquiri, creating a layered effect.
6. Garnish with a pineapple slice.