Weekend Recipe: Mojito

Although mojitos appear on drinks menus across the country, they can often be badly  made. Channel your inner bartender and avoid a disappointing mojito by recreating them at home with these tips from drinks expert Dave Broom.

GET YOUR MOJITO WORKING

Use the right glass. It’s a refreshing slinger of a drink, not a pint. Go easy on the mint. A couple of sprigs, not a bush. Don’t pound it into submission with a baseball bat; that makes it taste like ditch water. A light press is all that’s required. Squeeze the lime. If you batter an innocent lime to death, you’ll get bitter ditch water. It’s juice you want. Use simple (sugar) syrup unless you want to spent time dissolving the white sugar in the lime juice. Use a flavoursome white rum: Havana Club, Caña Brava, Flor de Caña, Santa Teresa Claro. If you want to use an aged rum, then think about how it will affect the balance, and adjust.

1 tsp 2:1 simple syrup (see below)
juice of 1 lime
2 sprigs of mint (Note: It’s not easy to get your hands on hierba buena, but if using spearmint don’t muddle the stems.)
60ml (2fl oz) soda water
30ml (1fl oz) white rum
ice cubes
Angostura Bitters, optional
In a 240ml (8fl oz) glass, dissolve
the simple syrup in the lime juice.

2:1 Simple Syrup
Gently heat 2 parts white sugar to 1 part water until the sugar has
completely dissolved. You can flavour the syrup by adding mint
leaves, citrus peel, and so on. Alternatively, just buy a bottle
of gomme.

Gently press leaves from one sprig of mint. Add the water. Stir. Add the
rum, then the ice, give it all a gentle stir, then spank the second sprig
of mint and use as garnish. Finally, go Cuban with a flick of Angostura Bitters, if desired.

Extracted from Rum The Manual by Dave Broom. Available here.