How to make the perfect Mojito!
Difficulty: easy
Total Time: < 2 min
Makes: 1
Cubana restaurant and cocktail bar brought Mojitos to the UK more than 20 years ago and we’ve made more than 3 million since then!
Mojitos are now the UK’s most popular cocktail – it’s not too difficult to make a good Mojito, but a lot of the recipes you find online are simply wrong!
Here is the right way to make this delicious cocktail and feel yourself transported to Cuba….
Ingredients
25ml fresh lime juice - around one lime
45ml white or golden rum - preferably Cuban!
1 flat tablespoon of raw sugar - (golden sugar)
2 sprigs fresh mint
Sparkling water
Instructions
- Press around one lime to get 25ml of juice - if you roll the lime hard on a surface with the palm of your hand it will be easier to juice - also, slightly yellow limes will give you more juice
- Pour the juice into a 10 fl oz (around half a pint) tall glass and add the sugar
- Take the bottom of the stalks off the mint sprigs and place the tops with the leaves into the glass (don't just use the leaves or they will float to the top)
- Using a muddler (a spoon or something similar will do), crush the sugar, lime juice and mint together for a few seconds to release the oils
- Add the rum - it's fine to use a good white rum for a Mojito, but we prefer golden rums which are a mix of white and aged, dark rums - using just dark rums can affect the flavour and we don't recommend it. We would recommend using Havana Club Anejo Especial rum which is available in most supermarkets and drinks shops - it's a genuine Cuban rum and perfect for Mojitos - at Cubana we sometimes import rums direct from Cuba, but we also happily use Havana Club
- Fill the glass to around three-quarters' full with sparkling water and stir for a few second to mix the ingredients
- Top with chunks of ice and garnish with a slice of lime and a mint sprig and add straws - we only use biodegradable straws which are now easy to find - some people like a dash or two of angostura bitters which adds an extra layer of complexity to the drink
- Sit back, sip and transport yourself to a sultry Cuban bar...
- We hope you enjoy your Mojito - just a few dos and don'ts: never use packet lime juice - it has to be fresh; don't just cut up a whole lime as with a caipirinha and muddle it with the mint and sugar as the flavours from the skin will be too strong; white sugar doesn't taste right and dark sugar is too strong - raw, golden sugar is the most natural sugar which would have been used in Cuba when the first Mojitos were made; and never use crushed ice - it melts too quickly and makes the Mojito watery - when Mojitos were first made, they only had chunks of ice