Mojitos are the best summer cocktail in the world, to me. It provides a refreshing mint lift and is one of the only drinks that actually tastes better at the end than in the beginning, as all the sugars and mint flavors concentrate down at the bottom of the glass and the melting ice gives you a nice chaser at the end.
The best Mojitos can only be made with fresh ingredients: limes, mint, and simple syrup and some serious elbow grease.
Once you've had a Mojito in Miami you'll never be happy ordering one anywhere else. I've had skunky Mojitos all over the country and even at bars where you'd think they would have known better. Normally, Mojitos are charged a premium over even the currently overpriced cocktail. So I've become an expert at making Mojitos myself.
Here's the recipe for a basic Mojito
serves 1 10-ounce Mojito)
Ingedients
2.5 to 3 limes cut in eighths (based on size of lime and juiciness) if you can't get fresh limes stop now.
3-4 sprigs of fresh mint (you make a decent Mojito without mint, I'll give the secret below.
3-5 tablespoons of simple syrup (Do NOT use undissolved sugar, it will not mix properly and you'll find most of it at the bottom of the glass still undissolved)
1.5-2 ounces of white rum (Do not use dark or flavored rums, you want the mint to shine without competition)
Sparkling water (I like to use Perrier) (Again, don't use waters with any flavors and especially not tonic)
Directions
Place limes and mint leaves only in cocktail mixer or heavy cocktail glass. Don't use the stems, they add a bitter taste detract from the look of the cocktail
Mull limes and leaves for a minute or two to get all the juice and essentials oils out of the mint and limes
Add ice to glass
Add simple syrup over ice (I find this helpful to fully integrate the syrup)
Add rum
Shake or stir to combine
Pour contents into tumbler. Add sparkling water to top off glass.
No fresh mint?
Sometimes I run out of mint or want one in the middle of winter when it's hard to find fresh mint.
Here's my trick for making an excellent Mojito without fresh mint:
Buy some excellent mint tea. I like to get mint tea from my local middle eastern grocery store, but any good quality mint tea should work fine.
When I make mint tea I try to make an entire pitcher (at least 1 quart).
Boil water, at least 16 ounces. Pour hot water in a heat safe vessel. Add tea. Use twice as much as you would normally use if you were making tea, You want all the mint flavor. I let it steep for at least 10-15 minutes. I have not noticed that the tea gets any bitter flavor the longer I steep it, but that would be one consideration for letting it steep less.
Once you steep the tea in 16 ounces of hot water grab your quart-sized pitcher. I add cool water to the pitcher first and then pour in the hot water, so it doesn't crack the pitcher.
Now that you have the mint tea, you will use that to substitute for the fresh mint.
My method uses about 1 to 1.5 ounces of mint tea in place of the fresh mint.
Mull it as you would fresh mint with the real limes and you have a good substitute for a normal Mojito.
Now you can put the mint tea in the fridge and have a Mojito any time you want.
Since limes can be stored much longer than fresh mint, you can have a door or more on hand in the fridge to provide the ingredients you need at a moment's notice. You could substitute lime juice for limes, but I think the flavor profile will be much different and end up tasting like a store-bought Mojito. I've never found that presqueezed lime juice can substitute adequately for fresh limes. But that's your call. However, once you have a real Miami Mojito, it's hard to settle for anything less.
Enjoy
The best Mojitos can only be made with fresh ingredients: limes, mint, and simple syrup and some serious elbow grease.
Once you've had a Mojito in Miami you'll never be happy ordering one anywhere else. I've had skunky Mojitos all over the country and even at bars where you'd think they would have known better. Normally, Mojitos are charged a premium over even the currently overpriced cocktail. So I've become an expert at making Mojitos myself.
Here's the recipe for a basic Mojito
serves 1 10-ounce Mojito)Ingedients
2.5 to 3 limes cut in eighths (based on size of lime and juiciness) if you can't get fresh limes stop now.
3-4 sprigs of fresh mint (you make a decent Mojito without mint, I'll give the secret below.
3-5 tablespoons of simple syrup (Do NOT use undissolved sugar, it will not mix properly and you'll find most of it at the bottom of the glass still undissolved)
1.5-2 ounces of white rum (Do not use dark or flavored rums, you want the mint to shine without competition)
Sparkling water (I like to use Perrier) (Again, don't use waters with any flavors and especially not tonic)
Directions
Place limes and mint leaves only in cocktail mixer or heavy cocktail glass. Don't use the stems, they add a bitter taste detract from the look of the cocktail
Mull limes and leaves for a minute or two to get all the juice and essentials oils out of the mint and limes
Add ice to glass
Add simple syrup over ice (I find this helpful to fully integrate the syrup)
Add rum
Shake or stir to combine
Pour contents into tumbler. Add sparkling water to top off glass.
No fresh mint?
Sometimes I run out of mint or want one in the middle of winter when it's hard to find fresh mint.
Here's my trick for making an excellent Mojito without fresh mint:
Buy some excellent mint tea. I like to get mint tea from my local middle eastern grocery store, but any good quality mint tea should work fine.
When I make mint tea I try to make an entire pitcher (at least 1 quart).
Boil water, at least 16 ounces. Pour hot water in a heat safe vessel. Add tea. Use twice as much as you would normally use if you were making tea, You want all the mint flavor. I let it steep for at least 10-15 minutes. I have not noticed that the tea gets any bitter flavor the longer I steep it, but that would be one consideration for letting it steep less.
Once you steep the tea in 16 ounces of hot water grab your quart-sized pitcher. I add cool water to the pitcher first and then pour in the hot water, so it doesn't crack the pitcher.
Now that you have the mint tea, you will use that to substitute for the fresh mint.
My method uses about 1 to 1.5 ounces of mint tea in place of the fresh mint.
Mull it as you would fresh mint with the real limes and you have a good substitute for a normal Mojito.
Now you can put the mint tea in the fridge and have a Mojito any time you want.
Since limes can be stored much longer than fresh mint, you can have a door or more on hand in the fridge to provide the ingredients you need at a moment's notice. You could substitute lime juice for limes, but I think the flavor profile will be much different and end up tasting like a store-bought Mojito. I've never found that presqueezed lime juice can substitute adequately for fresh limes. But that's your call. However, once you have a real Miami Mojito, it's hard to settle for anything less.
Enjoy
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