Mojitos

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drewdizzle

25+ Posts
So, with the summer and warm weather right around the corner, I've been really craving an afternoon mojito. One day, I bought the necessary stuff and tried to mix 'em up but found the entire process to be almost catastrophic in failure.

So, I seek the collective wisdom of HornFans: anyone know of any good mojito mixing tips or recipes? How much do you grind the leaves up? How much sugar do you add? etc.

I used:
rum
soda/sprite/tonic (tried all three)
mint leaves
sugar
lime
 
not that simple at all.

1st, one easy trick that is a cheat and not authentic, but one I'll actually resort to is using simple syrup.

you don't grind the mint dry. you need a BUNCH of fresh squeezed lime juice. not just a couple of wedges. you should use club soda.

you should, when a beginner, use bacardi limon rum, since it's easier to get the citrus flavor that way.

*another thing people f up is pulling the stems from the leaves. you want to use the stems. they have a shitload of mint oil in them. the pros do this in cuba.

actually, you may want to PM me for a full-blown seminar on mojitos. they aren't easy to make great. they are very easy to screw up.

I do alot of mojito parties. kinda sux, because I get stuck at the bar ginding mint and squeezing limes all night.

when done properly, you can have over 1/2 of the drink as rum and it still taste like smooth greatness. that's what drops panties.

*** the other secret is that you shold put a dash of angostura bitters on top of the finished drink. no one in the U.S. does that, but you should.
 
Scott, if you feel so inclined, feel free to share your mojito wisdom here w/ everyone. If not, I'm more than happy to PM.

Thanks...
 
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it's just that it's more of a talking thing, rather than typing. in fact, it's easiest to just get a bunch of ingredients and practice.

the stuff i posted before are basic tips that will help you alot.

i usually mix a pitcher's worth. honestly, i do the mashing first. then, I add some lime juice. then, some rum, then some soda. then, i taste, and often, it's not great. if not sweet engouh, more syrup. to sweet, more lime juice, too tart, soda/rum, etc.

eventually, you jsut start to get it right more.

doing it by the pitcher allows for this process, whereas making a glass at a time only gives you one chace to really get it right, wotherwise, you start over.

actually, i've covered the basics pretty much. maybe not as hard to explain as i thought.

also, use good rum. i use the limon when doing a party, since it's cheap and an easy cheat to get the right flavor.

for the real deal, you can use any GOOD rum (not bacardi).

do not use ron rico or whatever else in a plastic bottle, since you're fighting an uphill battle against the nastiness from the get-go.

what i need to do is get a recipe made. the problem is that I end up adding/re-adding stuff when making, so measurements are pretty tough to get.

*central market sells bunches of mint (organic i think). they are MUCH cheaper than the little cello packs at h.e.b., and the mint is better.

i actually have a buddy in georgetown who grows the real deal cuban variety mint in his yard. that guy is f'ing sserious. he also uses smuggled cuban rum, which is allsome.
 
Scott, thanks for the heads-up. Any idea of quantities? Also, what size pitcher?

When I get back to Austin soon, I'm going to give this a shot....fish tacos and mojitos!
biggrin.gif
 
I've made grapefruit mojitos before (I've got a couple grapefruit trees in my yard) and they're pretty awesome.

Good tip about using the mint stems. Makes sense, but I think I've just tossed the stems out b/c of aesthetic reasons.
 
when it comes to mojitos scottsins doesn't **** around.

to step up to the big leagues you need to get some havana club blanco. it is so smooth you can, like scottsins says, get really really liberal with the rum and people won't be breathing fire. he did an awesome job covering the basics and techniques.

here's what I use to make mine, and they do not suck.

havana club blanco
turbinado sugar
simple syrup
fresh limes
hierbabuena (some people refer to it as cuban mint)
soda water
muddler
raw sugar cane

spoon some turbinado sugar into a glass. add the hierbabuena/mint on top of it. squeeze some lime juice on top of this heap. take the muddler and mash up the leaves and sugar. squeeze the rest of the limes and add some simple syrup, and soda. add rum, crushed ice and garnish with raw cane sugar stirrer.

some tips:

- someone people cut up limes and muddle this with the mint. do not do this. you are making a mojito, not a caipirinha.

- the turbinado is grittier than refined sugar so it makes muddling the mint easier. you add the simple syrup for sweetness.
 
I can appreciate a great mojito, but I have to say, I have a great frozen version that scott and others may have a fit about, but it's always a great hit. You take 2c. lt. rum, 1/2 c. fresh mint, 2 6 oz cans frozen limeade concentrate (thawed), and ice. You can either make it in a big margarator like we have or you can do it in two batches in the blender. You fill up to the 4c level with ice and blend the batches. Pour into a container to freeze and serve from there.
 
why would i have a fit about it?

that sounds damn tasty and easy to make. it's not the kind of drink you'd enter in a contest, but I sure as **** sould put a few back, and probably like it.

I honestly never thought of coming up with a frozen version and now I'm curious.
 
ive made the frozen recipe before or similar to it, you can add syrup too and it is awesome. i love the frozen versions, it will blow your friends away if they have never had them.
 
Wow, good tips on here, everyone.

If you decide to plant your own mint in the ground (rather than a separate pot/planter), beware: it can take over your garden. My parents have a nice patch (just for mojitos), but the mint spreads out like a weed.
 
I love me some Mojitos. I play with different combinations. The best limes I have ever used for a Mojito were Florida Juicy Limes--WOW, what an amazing flavor--and very juicy. Anyway, I am not as fond of Mexican or Texas limes, but they do. Fresh mint is so very important. Some douche bags bought all the fresh mint at Central Market on Greenville this past Saturday morning...so I was forced to use the crap in the package--terrible. And I am blaming these douche bags for the bad karma I indured in my Derby betting. But I digress.

Anyway, Central Market has a limeade in the produce section--fresh squeezed limes, sugar, and water--I use this when in a pinch, and add a few squeezed limes according to taste--rather than spending all my time cutting and squeezing limes. The stuff is pretty good. When I have enough time, it is nothing but the real limes.

I use Don Q white rum , just a personal preference.
Absolutely use Club Soda.

Everything else is practice. The muddling, etc. Remember--just make them from the heart....
 
Lots of lime and mint leaves, muddle. Add simple syrup. Add ice. Add rum, to just about the top of the glass. (taste to adjust sweetness v. tartness until you get a good forumula -- this may vary by the limes you use). Adjust with lime, rum & syrup. Turn the whole thing into another cup and then back into the serving glass. Splash the top with club soda, add a mint leave. Awesome!
 
Azuca in SA has crazy mojitos. Delicious. This is the greatest cocktail since gin and tonic.

:many positive emoticons:
 
So, i decided to make frozen mojitos for a graduation party this weekend (high school grad .. parents drinking). Some friends lent the party throwers their dual headed frozen drink machine and the only caveat was that they didn't want a bunch of mint leaves/particles in the machine because cleaning it would be a *****.

Mrs. Reboots recipe was my starting point, but obviously couldn't do the whole blending of the mint leaves. Also, there were some other really good suggestions in the thread, especially about using yerba buena for the authentic flavor.

So, to get the mint flavor we needed but not have leaves in the machine, my solution was to steep mint leaves in the rum to get the flavor without the mess. What follows is the recipe that will get used from now on. The recipe i used is close to this, but I think it will be better this way (mainly an adjustment on the amount of water b/c they ended up about 10% too tart).

I bought 2 1.75 liter bottles of Bacardi white. I know it's not the best rum, but it's for a frozen drink machine and it was on sale at Fiesta's Liquor store. At Fiesta, I also bought a bunch of regular mint and a bunch of yerba buena. By bunch, i mean the amount the store considers a single saleable amount, the amount gathered together in a rubber band or ribbon. You get probably 4x the amount, by weight, of yerba buena that you get of mint.

In a large bowl i put the washed stems and leaves of both the mint and the yerba buena. After chewing on leaves and stems of both, the mint flavor is very strong in the stems of the yerba buena and should def be used. A few tablespoons of sugar and about 1/4 cup of rum was added to aid the muddling/crushing process. I used the back of a pampered chef ice cream scoop as my pestle to really crush the leaves and stems as much as I could. The resulting liquid in the bottom was very brown. I did this in two batches to make it easier and allow for better crushing.

Then, I put the both batches of crushed mints in a pitcher and added about 3 liters of rum. This sat from about 8 pm Sat night until 3 pm Sun. I then filtered the rum through coffee filters to remove all leaves, particles and residue. The final product was very tasty and very dark brown. The color was about the same as Captain Morgans, much darker than scotch or bacardi dark.

That was the liquor base for the drink.

In the mix for the machine, I put 8 cans of frozen limeade concentrate, thawed in the fridge, 16 - 20 cans of water and 2 - 3 liters of rum. I put 16 cans of water and 3 liters of rum, but in the future will put 20 cans of water and 2 liters of rum. The flavor was a little tart and people got way too drunk with the recipe i used. Mix it all together, dump in the machine and the end results were amazing! Lots of compliments and the mint flavor was very fresh and evident.

Finally, next time I think i'm going to slice some limes and put them in the pitcher with the rum and mint leaves to see if that adds a fresher lime flavor.

So, thanks to Mrs. Reboot for the basics and the idea and to whoever mentioned the yerba buena. I'm going to do traditional mojitos next weekend. I;ll report the results back, but I think I'm going to steep the rum in yerba buena leaves again because it really made for a good flavor base. I guess that's why real mint juleps need that steeping time as well.
 
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