Chohitos

You must have heard of a mohito, or ‘Momo’ cocktail. The traditional mohito mixes Bacardi with a muddle of lime and mint, lots of crushed ice and sugar syrup and then a finish of cointreau and/or just soda. It’s one of the classic cocktails: long, wicked and moreish.

One variation is made by Dubai’s Park Hyatt Hotel at its excellent Thai Kitchen Restaurant: the ThaiHito mixes dodgy Thai whisky, cointreau, crushed ice, limes, mint and chilis with soda. And it’s an amazing drink for all that!

But now we’ve (at considerable cost to our own health, I can tell you) researched a new cocktail of substantial weight. I give you... the Chohito.

A Chohito is a drink for madder people altogether. A Chohito is just plain wrong and is for those with no sense of responsibility at all. And it goes like this: the ingredients and method for one single Chohito...

Ingredients

• 2 measures Bacardi
• 2 limes, quartered
• 1 fistful fresh mint leaves
• 2 tsp sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp water
• Brut or extra brut champagne
• A lot of crushed ice

Put the cut limes and mint into the glass and give it all a good pounding to create a ‘muddle’. Ideally, use a pestle and mortar and several willing slaves. Otherwise a tall Collins glass and a wooden spoon will have to do. Slam in the Bacardi (don’t be niggardly about those measures, either) and then the sugar syrup. Stir, then add the crushed ice and top up with dry, dry champagne. Top with a sprig of mint (you can sugar the glass edge if you like by dipping it in lime juice and then a plate of sugar) and then serve. Drink a lot of them. Stop when your face freezes.

Notes
Don’t kill yourself using the best champagne in the world, but do use something dry. In fact, please don’t use a great champagne, it’s a terrible waste. But if you can get a dry pop, then this is a way better awful thing to do than a Kir Royale, which is just precious and, well, boring.

BTW...
A Kir Royale is brut or extra brut champagne mixed with crème de cassis or blackcurrant cordial. To make the ideal Kir Royale, swirl a splash of the cassis in a flute and discard all but a coating of the sweet cordial, then top up with champagne. A blanc des blancs would be good for this. Do not on any account make a kir that has a stronger colour than a rosé champagne: it should blush like a young girl not be rouged like an aged drab. If that helps...

This is, I swear, the last post about champagne on this blog for a long, long time. Promise!!!

.