Mojito

Mojito

IBA Official Cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Served	On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish	sprig of mint (Yerba buena in the original recipe), lemon slice
Standard drinkware	Collins glass
IBA specified ingredients*	4 cl (4 parts) White rum 3 cl (3 parts) Fresh lime juice 6 leaves of Mint 2 teaspoons Sugar Soda Water
Preparation	Muddle mint leaves with sugar and lime juice. Add a splash of soda water and fill the glass with cracked ice. Pour the rum and top with soda water. Garnish and serve with straw.

Mojito (/moʊˈhiːtoʊ/; Spanish: [moˈxito]) is a traditional Cuban highball.

Traditionally, a mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, sparkling water, and mint.^[1][2] The original Cuban recipe uses spearmint or yerba buena, a mint variety very popular on the island. Its combination of sweetness, refreshing citrus, and mint flavors is intended to complement the potent kick of the rum, and has made this clear highball a popular summer drink.^[3][4] The cocktail has a relatively low alcohol content (about 10 percent alcohol by volume).

When preparing a mojito, lime juice is added to sugar (or syrup) and mint leaves. The mixture is then gently mashed with a muddler. The mint leaves should only be bruised to release the essential oils and should not be shredded.^[5] Then rum is added and the mixture is briefly stirred to dissolve the sugar and to lift the mint leaves up from the bottom for better presentation. Finally, the drink is topped with crushed ice and sparkling soda water. Mint leaves and lime wedges are used to garnish the glass.^[6]

Mojito

The mojito is one of the most famous rum-based highballs. There are several versions of the mojito.^[7]

History

Video demonstration of mojito preparation.

Havana, Cuba, is the birthplace of the Mojito, although the exact origin of this classic cocktail is the subject of debate. One story traces the Mojito to a similar 16th century drink known as "El Draque", after Francis Drake.^[4] In 1586, after his successful raid at Cartagena de Indias Drake's ships sailed towards Havana but there was an epidemic of dysentery and scurvy on board. It was known that the local South American Indians had remedies for various tropical illnesses; so a small boarding party went ashore on Cuba and came back with ingredients for a medicine which was effective. The ingredients were aguardiente de caña (a crude form of rum, translates as fire water from sugar cane) added with local tropical ingredients; lime, sugarcane juice and mint.^[8] Drinking lime juice in itself would have been a great help in staving off scurvy and dysentery.^[9] Tafia/Rum was used as soon as it became widely available to the British (ca. 1650). Mint, lime and sugar were also helpful in hiding the harsh taste of this spirit. While this drink was not called a Mojito at this time, it was still the original combination of these ingredients.^[4]

Some historians contend that African slaves who worked in the Cuban sugar cane fields during the 19th century were instrumental in the cocktail's origin.^[10] Guarapo, the sugar cane juice often used in Mojitos,^[4] was a popular drink amongst the slaves who helped coin the name of the sweet nectar.^[10] It never originally contained lime juice.^[11][12]

There are several theories behind the origin of the name Mojito; one such theory holds that name relates to mojo, a Cuban seasoning made from lime and used to flavour dishes.^[4][13] Another theory is that the name Mojito is simply a derivative of mojadito (Spanish for "a little wet") or simply the diminutive of mojado ("wet"). Due to the vast influence of immigration from the Canary Islands, the term probably came from the mojo creole marinades adapted in Cuba using citrus vs traditional Isleno types.

The Mojito has routinely been presented as a favorite drink of author Ernest Hemingway.^[14] It has also often been said that Ernest Hemingway made the bar called La Bodeguita del Medio famous as he became one of its regulars and wrote "My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita." This expression in English can be read on the wall of the bar today, handwritten and signed in his name,^[15] although Hemingway biographers have expressed doubts about such patronage and about the author's taste for mojitos.^[16] La Bodeguita del Medio is more known for their food rather than drink.^[17][18]

A report created in 2014 states that the Mojito is now the most popular cocktail in Britain. ^[19]

Variations

• Many hotels in Havana also add Angostura bitters to cut the sweetness of the Mojito; while icing sugar is often muddled with the mint leaves rather than cane sugar, and many establishments simply use sugar syrup to control sweetness.^[20] Many bars today in Havana use lemon juice rather than fresh lime.

Virgin Mojito

• Fruit-flavoured rums, such as mango, strawberry, lychee or mandarin, are often substituted.
• A Mexican Mojito uses the Mexican native tequila instead of rum as a primary alcohol, and simple syrup instead of sugar for a sweetener. To simplify production, some restaurants will add mint leaves and peppermint extract to premade margaritas for Mexican Mojitos.
• A "Dirty Mojito" uses spiced rum, brown sugar syrup, key limes, crushed mint and soda.
• A Mojito without alcohol is called a "Virgin Mojito" or "Nojito"^[21]
• An "Apple Mojito" uses apple-flavoured liqueur as well as rum.
• The drink is also spelled Mohito and Moxito in certain cultural areas of Cuba.
• An "English Mojito" uses gin in place of rum and sprite as a substitute for sugar/soda.
• A "Greek Mojito" uses Metaxa Greek spirit or Mastika instead of rum
• A "Mojito Royal" is a mojito with Champagne instead of club soda.
• A "Morelli Mojito" refers to a mojito made with Red Bull instead of soda water and Raspberry vodka
• A "Mojitaly" is a mojito with Fernet-Branca instead of rum and mapo instead of lime.
• A "lychee mojito" is a mojito made with lychee syrup or liqueur and is popular in Hong Kong
• A "sojito" is a mojito made with Korean soju instead of white rum.^[22]
• A "Guava Mojito" uses Union Jake's Guava Brandy instead of rum.^[23]
• A "Thaihito" uses local Thai Sang Som rum
• A "Sad Era" uses Jose Cuervo Tequila instead of White rum.

See also

• Caipirinha
• List of cocktails
• Mint julep
• Rum Punch
• Grog is a mix of water, rum and lime, give as rations to British sailors in the 18th Century.
• Liquor portal

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mojito.

The Wikibook Bartending has a page on the topic of: Mojito

• A collection of Mojito Recipes with variations
• Mojito Cocktail recipes from thebar.com

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