Mojito

I hope you’re lucky enough to be at the cottage right now!

Me, I'm stuck in my apartment during this scorcher of a heat wave, and believe me it’s not as glamorous as it sounds! No lake, no pool, the only thing to cool me down are cool and refreshing cocktails like the one we are going to learn about today.

The Mojito is a Cuban cocktail that dates back to the 1600s and there are many stories about how it came to be, but the one I like is that it was invented by pirates. Cubans drank a type of moonshine mixed with lime, mint, and sugar as a medicinal drink to keep diseases away. But when Cuba was invaded by pirates, Pirate Drake was given the drink but he replaced the moonshine with rum and named it El Draque.

The popularity of The Mojito came back with Ernest Hemmingway during his time in Cuba, and then increased in popularity when featured in the James Bond movie Die Another Day, and the Johnny Depp movie The Rum Diary.

To this day The Mojito remains as one of the most popular cocktails around due to its near perfect balance of sweet, sour, earthy, and spirit flavours, and just how straight up refreshing it is.

What you will need:

• Collins Glass

• Fresh Mint

• Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

• Simple Syrup

• Good Quality Rum

• Muddler

• Ice

This drink is built in your glass, so there’s no need to shake it.

Step One:

Put 6-10 mint leaves to your collins glass with 1oz of freshly squeezed lime juice and 1oz simple syrup.

Step Two:

Lightly muddle the ingredients together for about 10 seconds.

Step Three:

Add 2oz of Rum to your glass.

Step Four:

Fill your glass with ice and top off with Soda Water.

Step Five:

Give a quick stir to mix everything together and garnish with a sprig of mint and a metal straw to save the turtles.

Time to kick back on the dock and enjoy this refreshing classic!