We have belatedly come to the party and discovered Tom Hanks has a very surprising favourite cocktail that he’s dubbed ‘Diet Cokagne”.

It almost pains us to type the words but the cocktail mixes Diet Coke with Champagne.

Hanks revealed the quirk during an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, describing the mix as being like “an American Aperol Spritz”.

He invented the drink at the Café Carlyle Jazz Restaurant in New York.

“I don’t drink a lot, so I usually have a Diet Coke … because if you didn’t have a long enough disco nap, you’re gonna fall asleep about 11:45,” he explained.

“So I have a little bit of caffeine, Diet Coke in a glass. But they brought the Champagne around, they brought the nice flutes; it was like the last episode of The Bachelor.

“I said, ‘oh, give me a shot of Champagne in there for crying out loud,’ in the Diet Coke. Everybody says, ‘you’re insane,’ but I want to … celebrate the season. So, I had a sip of this. Stephen, it was delicious.”

Colbert said he wanted to try a Diet Cokange and pulled out cans of Diet Coke and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot from under his desk.

Hanks demonstrated the process, saying he used about a third of a can of Diet Coke in a glass of ice. He added that you can substitute any cola product, but he uses sugar-free cola because he has type 2 diabetes.

“This is exactly what the folks at Veuve Clicquot intended,” Colbert joked as he topped up the Diet Coke with Champagne.

They both took a sip and Colbert silently mouthed wow to Hanks.

We’ll just have to trust him on that …

Coke has been popping up in some very unexpected places in Hollywood lately. Earlier this year in the film the Materialists, the character played by Dakota Johnson had a signature drink order called a Diesel that featured Coke and beer in the same glass.

It may sound bizarre, but it’s apparently very popular in Germany, where its known as a “kalter kaffee”, “colabier”, “mazout”, “moorwasser”, “schmutziges” or “krefelder.”