Get on the Mojito - Mohito Bandwagon!
During our recent return trip to Europe, we confirmed the drink taking the US (and apparently the world) by storm this season, very popular in cocktail lounges on both sides of the Atlantic - The Mojito (sometimes spelled Mohito, pronouced MOW-HEE-TOW) .A refreshing sparkling drink originally from Cuba, great for mid day, after work, clubbing, afterhours, or whenever that drinking mood strikes.... AND fun to make, impressive to serve to your friends and guests.
This treat debuted at our shop during our quarterly Gallery Night this Fall in Milwaukee, and of course, we ran thru FIVE GALLONS of it before the night was over!
For EACH drink place into a cocktail shaker:
- 1 sprig of fresh mint leaves from your garden or local market, removed from their stems (don't use dried, but frozen fresh is okay)
- 1/2 a fresh lime squeezed
- 1 tablespoon or more of table sugar or bar sugar (start with one and increase to taste as needed later, don't skip the sugar, it's important to the taste. You can substitute Splenda, but Equal and SweetNLow don't seem to work at all)
Crush these three ingredients in the bottom of the shaker using a wooden muddler (see picture) to release the mint essence from the leaves into the sugar and lime juice
- pour 1 or 2 shots (per drink) of white rum (or citrus rum!) over ice
Cover shaker and shake vigorously and dramatically in front of your guests
- pour into tall Tom Collins glass filled with ice cubes, or better yet one of several Mojito glasses or sets available from AlwaysHappyHour.com
- Do not strain the mixture from the shaker, allow the crushed mint leaves to go into the serving glass as well, that's part of the look and taste!
- Fill the glass with sparking water, seltzer, or club soda and stir with a long spoon or cocktail mixing stick
- Garnish with a fresh mint leave floating on top and serve with a tall drinking straw
When making Mojito's for a group in a pitcher or perhaps either our 1/2 gallon King Kong Shaker or Mega Shaker, here are few tricks for crowd-size Mojitos:
- Use frozen lime-ade and/or bottled lime juice instead of squeezing all those limes,
- use a food processor to chop the mint leaves in bulk,
- use 7UP or other lemon-lime soda instead of sparkling water and table sugar
