And now for something completely different. . . . Today, I’m going to share a recipe with you. I’ve spent a number of years perfecting and tinkering with a mojito formula taught to me by a genuine Cuban cocktail barman – who, incidentally, shared his knowledge of the drink whilst making them for me at a Cuban cocktail bar. One, I might add, that was actually in Cuba. Get the point? This is authentic stuff here. For legal reasons, and not wishing to get the chap sacked, I’ll refrain from naming him or the bar he works at.
For those of you who’ve never tried a mojito, you don’t know what you’ve been missing. Some say the cocktail was Hemingway’s favourite, but others dismiss the suggestion on the grounds that he hated sweet drinks. Well, whatever, everyone seems to like them when they’re in fashion.
Ingredients
Rum
Now, I’ll start by upsetting mojito aficionados by saying that although conventional wisdom has it that the cocktail should be made with light rum, I personally prefer it with the dark stuff. Look, don’t cry about it, dark rum has a fuller flavour, okay? Get it? Have you stopped being difficult about it? Good, I shan’t need to say any more on that score.
Mint
The fresher the better. Preferably grow your own. It’s the easiest plant imaginable to grow and root from cuttings.
Limes
Squeeze them. If they’re hard don’t buy them. You want the fellows that feel like soft plums for this. ‘But I only have lemons?’ I hear you say. Well you’ll have to go out and buy some limes then, won’t you.
Sugar
Purists say use sugar cane juice and nothing else. I’m not a purist. For me, it’s good old Demerara sugar all the way. As a poor man’s substitute, I’ll tolerate sugar syrup, which is easily made by throwing loads of white sugar into a saucepan of boiling water until it just starts to thicken – and then allowing it to cool, obviously. Dieters could of course use a sugar substitute like saccharin, but such alternatives offend most decent minded cocktail drinkers, so are best avoided.
Bitters
A dash of angostura bitters will help take the edge off the sweetness a little. A bottle of it – easily identified by an oversized label – goes a long, long way, so consider it a long term investment.
Soda Water
Yes, that’s soda water, not lemonade, not sparkling water, and certainly not Sprite ™.
Glass
The mix below is for a standard ‘soda’ glass. Double the quantities up, and they’ll be just right for a pint glass – my preferred drinking vessel.
Mixing
Takes about three minutes:
1) Drop ten good sized mint leaves into the glass, followed by one dash (i.e. a healthy drop) of bitters. For a special twist, add a few basil leaves, too.
2) With the end of a wooden rolling pin (or other suitable implement) gently pound the mint into the base of the glass with a slight twisting motion. Emphasis here on ‘gently pound’ – you’re not trying to smash the glass (been there, done that, got the T-shirt, etc). Continue to crush the mint until it’s nicely pulped together.
3) Cut a lime in half, and then slice a narrow disc off the cut end of one of those halves. Quarter the disc and add it to the glass. With the end of the rolling pin, mash the lime pieces into the mint pulp. Squeeze the remainder of the half lime that you cut the disc from into the glass, and then grate the its zest into the glass as well. Refrigerate the other half of the lime for later.
4) Add one and a half heaped dessert spoon of Demerara sugar to the glass, then, working with a slight twisting motion, grind it into the lime and mint until it starts to look green(ish).
5) That’s the hard work out of the way. Now add two fingers of dark rum. Two fingers? Okay, put another way, fill the glass so that the top of the liquid is about an inch up from the base.
6) Throw in three or four ice cubes, and top the glass up to just below the rim with soda water. Stir (yes, it’s stirred not shaken) up the sediment with a long spoon, add a straw – freely available from fast food outlets, as are a good selection of condiments and sauces in handy sachet packs, but that’s not really relevant – et voila, you have yourself a ‘Bonnett’ mojito. Enjoy it, you’ve earned it with all the effort you’ve put into making it.
If yours doesn’t look like the one in the photo, and/or doesn’t taste right, then you must have screwed up somewhere, in which case you only have yourself to blame. I can’t help it if you can’t follow basic instructions. . . .
