Some more cocktail fun, the Mojito

I got my self a little out of order by throwing the Aviation out there. I had originally planned to riff through a bunch of white rum drinks. I started it with the Daiquiri; white rum, simple sysrup and lime juice. So what happens if you add some mint and seltzer water? You get a Mojito. Pretty simple. Ok, we add in one extra thing, we are you going to muddle the mint.

Muddling is really quite simple, but requires some slightly different approaches depending upon what you are muddling. At the end of the day, the goal is the same, extract the oils from whatever you are muddling. How you do this is a little different depending on what the you are extracting the oil from. If you are muddling something like a lime, you can feel free to mash away and use a muddler that is rough on the bottom. In the case of mint, you just want to gently bruise it, if you smash and shred it up, you will end up picking mint from your teeth all night. Just gently press into the mint and give a slight twist, nothing to hard.

So now that we have our technique done, how about a Mojito.

Mojito

1½ ounces white rum
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
1 mint sprig and 4 mint leaves (use tender, young mint tops; peppermint is best because it doesn’t wilt and retains its shape).
1 ounce soda

Muddle gently one mint sprig with the simple syrup and the lime juice in the bottom of a highball glass. Add the rum and the ice and top with no more than two ounces of club soda. Give it a gently stir to combine everything. Garnish with a generous sprig of mint.