Mojito
Cuba’s national cocktail. White rum, fresh mint, lime, sugar, soda. Pre-tiki by centuries, lives on every exotic-cocktail menu by virtue of belonging in the same flavor universe.
The History
The Mojito traces to 16th-century Cuba and a medicinal precursor called El Draque, named for English privateer Francis Drake, who allegedly used a similar concoction to ward off scurvy and dysentery. The modern Mojito recipe stabilized in the early 20th century and was codified at La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana in the 1940s, where Hemingway drank his. The drink predates tiki by 400 years but slots naturally into the rum-citrus-fresh-herb vocabulary the genre refined.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Cuban-style white rum (Banks 5 or similar)
- 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.5–0.75 oz simple syrup (1:1, to taste)
- 8–12 fresh mint leaves
- 2 oz chilled club soda
- Mint sprig + lime wheel (garnish)
Directions
Combine mint leaves and simple syrup in the bottom of a Collins glass.
Muddle gently—bruise the leaves, don’t crush them.
Add rum and lime juice. Fill glass with crushed ice.
Stir to integrate and chill.
Top with chilled club soda.
Garnish with a mint sprig and a lime wheel.