History of the Mojito
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. 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. Drinking lime juice in itself would have been a great help in staving off scurvy and dysentery. 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.
|
Ingredients you will need: 4-5 Fresh Raspberries |
STEP 1
The fresher your ingredients the better! In a clear Mixing Glass, add 2-3 lime wedges, 5 raspberries and 5 mint sprigs. Then using a Bar Spoon, add your sugar (or simple syrup) over top of the fruit and mint.
STEP 2
Muddle! Using a serrated head muddler, muddle your fruits, mint and sugar together slowly but firmly... making sure all ingredients are well mixed with a juiced consistency. The juices and spices of your ingredients will create the main flavor of your cocktail.
Once you have reached a desirable constancy, add your liquor (White Rum) to the muddled ingredients.
STEP 3
Here comes the fun part! Cap your mixing glass full of ingredients with a stainless steel cocktail shaker tin. Once the cap is secure, vigorously shake the ingredients for 30 seconds creating a frothy chilled mixture. Remove the mixing glass from the shaker tin, letting the mixture now reside in the cocktail shaker. Set your mixing glass aside.
STEP 4
Now it is time to strain your mixture. You will need 2 types of strainers for this process. 1) a standard 4-prong cocktail strainers and 2) a conical strainer. First, take the glass you will be serving the cocktail in (we like to use the BarConic® Monument Highball Glass style) and fill it with ice. Next take your conical strainer and place it securely on the rim of the glass. Hold it in place while you use the 4-prong strainer to pour the cocktail mixture from the shaker tin over the conical strainer, into the glass. this is a double straining method that allows for only the liquid to end up in your drink.
STEP 5
Top off with club soda once you have added your strained ingredients to the ice filled glass. Garnish with additional raspberry, lime and mint sprig, add drinking straw and Enjoy!