The Cosmopolitan may well be one of the biggest selling cocktails in the world. But it, like a preference for Sex and the City, is something that should be left to the prettier half of the population.
When we’re talking about cocktails on JOE.ie, we should be focussing squarely on proper man stuff.
If you decide to start a diet or at least cut down on the bad stuff for a while, mixed drinks might help you out. But which drink should you order that won’t look girly?
For centuries, rum was the common man’s drink, and with birth of mixology (cocktail making) bartenders came up with loads of different recipes based on rum. One of the most famous of these cocktail recipes is Mojito, pronounced Moh-HEE-toh, the drink favoured by alpha-male author Ernest Hemingway.
These days you can find different Mojito mixes in supermarkets, but if you really appreciate your Mojito and want to feel real taste of Cuba you should follow the instructions below.
A Mojito is traditionally made of five ingredients: white rum, sugar, lime, mint and sparkling water.
There are countless recipes for the Mojito but this version is for the one Hemingway himself enjoyed at the Mojito’s place of birth: La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba.
For the original authentic recipe from Havana Cuba you will need:
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
2 shots of lime juice
4 mint leaves
2 shots of Havana Club white rum
Soda water
Directions:
- put the mint leaves in a long cocktail glass and add lime juice
- add the powdered sugar and then gently smash the mint into lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long, traditionally wooden bartender’s tool, used like a pestle to mash or ‘muddle’ fruits or herbs in the bottom of a glass in order to release their flavour). You can also use the back of the spoon if you can’t get hold of a muddler.
- Fill up the glass with ice (preferably crushed, and if you do not have crusher for ice, the simplest thing to do is to you put ice cubes into a napkin and smash them a few times in a hard surface) and add rum
- Stir with the spoon and top up with soda water
- Garnish with a spring of mint
So that’s the traditional method, but there are a lot of different recipes for Mojito out there. With this in mind, I would like to present my personal favourite.
For this version you will need:
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
A dash of sugar syrup
½ a lime
10-12 mint leaves
1 ½ shots of white rum (Havana Club Anejo Reserva)
½ a shot of dark rum (Havana Club Reserva)
A dash of soda water
Directions:
- cut the half lime into wedges and put them into the long cocktail glass (before you cut the lime gently roll it between a hard surface and the flat of your hand to release juice from the lime)
- add mint leaves, brown sugar and sugar syrup to a tall glass and gently muddle those four ingredients (try to not press too hard because you will release oil from lime skin and your Mojito will be bitter).
- with white rum the rule is to use white sugar, but as we’re using some dark rum, brown sugar will helps to give the perfect dark/white balance.
- half fill the glass with crushed ice and add white rum and dash of soda
- stir with the spoon and fill up with more crushed ice
- add some dark rum to the top of the mixture
- garnish with a spring of mint
Whichever version you go for, enjoy your drink (sensibly)
Goran Jandric mixes cocktails at The Ice Bar, Four Seasons Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin, D4.
