A Pina Colada with vodka instead of rum.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Chi Chi is the Pina Colada with vodka instead of rum. Same template (coconut cream, pineapple juice, ice), different spirit. The drink that everyone in the 1970s pretended was sophisticated and that turned out, against the odds, to be a better drink than its reputation. Tropical without being committed to tiki, creamy without being overly sweet.
Use a clean wheat or rye vodka (Ketel One, Belvedere). The vodka is the canvas; cheap vodka makes the drink taste flat. Coco Lopez or Coco Real for the coconut cream; the unsweetened tinned coconut milk you cook with is wrong here. Fresh-squeezed pineapple juice if you can manage it, the bottled stuff if you cannot. Blend with crushed ice until thick. Pour into a hurricane glass, pineapple wedge and cherry on the rim. Pair with a pool, a beach, the kind of afternoon where dinner is unlikely to happen.
What changes from the Pina Colada
Rum out, vodka in. Everything else stays.
What to pour it alongside
Poolside food: prawn cocktails, tropical fruit salads, fish tacos.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Blend vodka, pineapple juice and cream of coconut with 1 cup crushed ice until smooth.
- Pour into a hurricane glass. Garnish with pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry.
Nutrition
Want the classic? Our Pina Colada recipe is here.
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