How to Make a Mojito – Recipe, Ingredients & History
Looking for the Best Mojito Recipe?
You’ve Found It…Along with Some Fun Facts & History
This traditional Cuban drink, pronounced Moh-HEE-toh, is a fantastic summer refresher. The authentic Mojito Recipe includes the muddling of mint leaves. Due to this time consuming task, a mojito is not a favorite drink amongst busy nightclub bartenders. Nonetheless, it’s still a wildly popular drink all around the world, served in bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs and lounges everywhere.
So, whether you’re an avid home bar enthusiast, an up-and-coming bartender or you’re just looking to up your bartending game, take a few minutes to learn some history and talking points on the mojito. And next time you’re asked to make one, not only will you know how to make a proper mojito, you’ll also know some cool facts about the drink that you can use to engage your customers.
[Transcript: History of the Mojito Cocktail]
Kyle:
We’re going to talk about the Mojito now, which was the first classic cocktail created outside of the United States. In my life, I’ve made hundreds of Mojitos and I’ve developed a bit of a method that I think makes the best, freshest Mojito every single time. It’s really simple, you just take some of that mint, you put it in just under an ounce of simple syrup, press it very lightly add just under an ounce of lime juice, add your rum, probably good two ounces, top it off with crushed ice, and then churn the mint through the drink so it-
Nate:
Very important.
Kyle:
Evenly distributes, and then you simply top it with some ice cubes. This avoids the issue of over dilution in a crushed ice drink.
Nate:
Creates a ceiling, a beautiful ceiling for the drink, yeah.
Kyle:
Yeah, and then you simply just add a touch of soda, it’s another common issue that a lot of new bartenders-
Nate:
Drowning it with the gun.
Kyle:
They drown it with a ton of soda, and then it just tastes like soda.
Kyle:
So with that, that’s all done. Then you smack that sprig of mint, put it by the straw add a nice lime wheel, best Mojito you’ll ever make in your life.
Nate:
So mint, the star of the show. It’s a Mojito this is arguably the most important part of the drink. That’s what makes it a Mojito. With mint guys, I see a lot of people and they’re shredding it and really beating the hell out of the mint, you don’t need to do that. Mint is incredibly delicate. You breathe on it wrong and it’ll release the oils. If you shred it what that is going to do is it’s going to release the bitter core, Fel, A, when you’re sucking up a Mojito through a straw, nobody wants those little flecks and bits in their mouth, so it serves better just to kind of gently churn it, or even with the mint, you can just kind of smack it to wake it up and that’ll release the beautiful oils.
Nate:
You can actually trick people’s noses. If you put a Sprig of mint, right by the straw, close to their nose, as they’re sipping it, it will taste and smell exactly the same as if you just muddled a bunch of mint in there. Because the olfactory senses, 80 to 90% of what you actually taste comes through here, guys. So just be gentle with the mint.
Kyle:
Yeah. Or even if to that, even if you didn’t put mint in the drink and you didn’t muddle it, so long as you had a nice, beautiful sprig of mint and you smacked it and you put it right by the straw, that’s that’s 90% of …
Nate:
Of the experience.
Kyle:
Yeah, the experience, absolutely. Do you want to talk a bit about rum you might like to use?
Nate:
Right, so there’s a lot of different iterations of the Mojito as you get into the nerdier side of professional bartending. You see guys using like rum Agricole and Cachaça, but the baseline for any good Mojito is I think probably just a good white rum.
Kyle:
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, probably the most popular around the world would be Havana three-year, which is fitting as it’s a Cuban rum and it’s a famous Cuban drink, so yeah.
Nate:
Yeah. It serves to drink well, and it’s got a little bit of age to it, so it’s got … In rum circles is the term they call it that “funk,” that certain little bit of funk that just so it’s not tasting like a mint Mojito with vodka. It doesn’t just taste like a clean neutral grain spirit. Rum, it has that very sugarcane quality and in rum circles, they call it “the funk,” which is awesome, but …
Kyle:
Yeah, you could absolutely get adventurous if your guests wants to go on that adventure with you.
Nate:
Maybe a dark rum Mojito, maybe Cachaça.
Kyle:
Yeah. Maybe half and half, half Cachaça, half rum. If you’re in the States or many other places in the world, rum Agricole to get that funk would be amazing. Yeah. Plenty of room for exploration.
How to Make a Mojito Video Tutorial
[Transcript: How to Make the Best Mojito – Recipe & Ingredients]
We’re going to start by picking off our mint leaves. We want to make sure that there are no black spots or any bruising or holes in the mint, we want to make sure that they’re perfectly intact and fresh. We want to also start from the bottom up because we want to save the head of the Sprig for garnish. Going to add one ounce of a one to one simple syrup? You could even use a little bit less than an ounce, you can always add more, if you want more sweetness later. I’m going to gently press the mint to begin to release its oils and integrate its flavor into the simple syrup. To add one full ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice. We’re going to add two ounces of Havana Club 3 Year. This is, in our experience, our favorite rum use in the Mojito. It’s also quite fitting since it’s a Cuban rum and the Mojito is a Cuban cocktail. Then I’m going to add some crushed ice to this.
And we’re then going to churn the ingredients to evenly distribute the flavors, can use a cocktail napkin or a coaster on top to prevent your hands from touching the ice as much as possible. And then we’re going to top with ice cubes. This is all about controlling the rate of dilution. If we top it off with more crushed ice, we’re going to get a very watery drink, very fast. We’re then going to give our beautiful mint sprig garnish a smack, or you can even rub it against your hands to release its oils. And then you’re going to nestle the straw right in that mint sprig. And that’s your Mojito.
What you need:
- 2 oz (60ml) white Rum
- 1 oz (30ml) simple syrup
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- 8-10 mint leaves
- 1 sprig of mint
- club soda
- spoon
- straw
- ice
Now you know more about the mojito than most bartenders. Go out into the world and share your newfound mojito knowledge and skills!
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