Kas
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2007
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Here's some information about a classic Cuban cocktail, the mojito.
From my blog, while I was still posting regularly on it:
Battle Royale, 3 Bacardis - Sunday, January 14, 2007 - by Kas
A properly made Mojito is benediction for your tongue.
Ordering a Mojito is much like ordering a certain dish of your preference, let's assume a steak for my more visually-oriented reader - if any. If you order a steak, you pretty much know what to expect: a slice of cow. However, whether that cow was nurtured like a child or grew up as Cinderella has a direct impact on the price, as does the sauce, vegetables, other things they decided to put on your plate and the ambience of course. Luckily, the latter doesn't have much impact on the steak's flavour - the others do. The same is true for the Mojito: is top-shelf rum used? Is the mint properly muddled? Etcetera, and so on.
According to Bacardi, a proper Mojito is made like this:
1.5 oz BACARDI Rum
12 fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime
7 oz club soda
2 tbsp. simple syrup
(or 4 tsp. sugar)
For the smoothest majitos, gently crush mint leaves and lightly squeeze lime in a cool tall glass. Pour sweet syrup on top to cover and fill glass with ice. Add Bacardi Rum, club soda, and stir your emerging mojito well. Garnish with a lime wedge, a few sprigs of mint, toast, sip, and enjoy Bacardi mojitos with your friends.
The number of different flashy websites the company has dedicated to this one drink makes one wonder. I, for one, wonder why the hell there can't be just 1 website where I can find the information I want to know about Bacardi instead of ploughing through thousandths of megabytes of flash-movies featuring women throwing ice and mint around as if they're standing in the glass.
Nonetheless, three words come to mind when I read - and reread - that recipe: Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot. How in the name of all that is holy can that recipe state a rum-soda ratio like that? That's like throwing the rum in a swimming pool! I don't know about their glasses, but mine can barely hold the suggested club soda, not to mention all other ingredients. I don't think the wannabe-Cubans have intended to smother the rum like that, but it makes the recipe suspicious at best.
What is a Mojito? This was answered by someone in an IRC chat room a year ago: a drink in which mint, lime, sugar and (soda) water is used to mask the strong rum flavour. Nowadays, I feel obliged to alter that statement slightly - those ingredients are not used to mask the rum but to make an entirely new, balanced, drink: to enhance rather than conceal.
My own recipe:
Put 1 tsp. of sugarcane in a Collins (approx. 7 oz) glass, add 8 mint leaves and the juice of ½ lime plus the limes themselves and ½ oz of simple syrup. Muddle gently until you can clearly smell the mint. Fill the glass with ice-cubes and then crushed ice. Pour 1 ½ oz of rum into the glass, carefully stir, add some more crushed ice and finally soda water to top. Garnish with a lime wedge and 2 mint leaves and a straw.
As you can see, there are basically 3 steps when making this drink:
-Non-alcoholic ingredients muddled.
-Rum poured into the glass.
-Top and garnish.
It is absolutely imperative that you gently muddle the first ingredients; doing so thoroughly could break the mint leaves - the straw will not filter the tiny parts, so you'll be eating them later. The sugarcane functions as a grinder too and most force is applied to the limes: no mint leaves have to be harmed while making this drink! Moreover, the limes on the bottom of the glass make it look much better.
I add ice-cubes and crushed ice as opposed to merely crushed ice because this drink is best drunk over a longer period of time. Crushed ice will melt easier, diluting the drink too fast. You do want to have the glass filled with ice and cold fast though, so you're going to have to pick up that hammer if you don't have a machine to do your dirty work. Your little icy tower will have collapsed once you have poured the rum in, so you'll want to add some extra ice and soda water to fill the glass. And, of course, never forget that garnish! A thing to note is the placement of the straw; it is ideally placed in the hull of a lime. Toy around a bit by changing your straw's position, I promise you will notice a difference!
Tonight, I made 3 Mojitos - each with a different Bacardi flavour; Superior (white), Reserva (brown) and Black. I had originally set my mind on the one with Black, the one I like most on the rocks. However, the Superior really proved to be king: the mix of flavours is best when the rum is less dominant. Perhaps because I really like the taste of lime? Who knows, but I found the other two to be severely lacking in balance.
More information:
http://wiki.webtender.com/wiki/Mojito
This is basically the wiki for winos and other liquor enthusiasts - such as me. Posted is a link to the mojito entry.
http://groups.msn.com/DrinkBoy/messageboard.msnw
The drinkboy message board is the home turf where cocktail enthusiasts discuss their hobby. It's pretty hardcore, so it could be a little intimidating for newbies.
http://ipi.fi/~hessu/mojito/mojito-crushed.html
A link I found on aforemention drinkboy message board to a personal website. Posted is a link to his mojito entry and contains some good information on the drink.
That's about it for now. If you have any questions regarding cocktails, feel free to ask me. I've got loads of links to blogs, discussion boards and informational sites - so if you want to read up on some really good drinks, just ask!
From my blog, while I was still posting regularly on it:
Battle Royale, 3 Bacardis - Sunday, January 14, 2007 - by Kas
A properly made Mojito is benediction for your tongue.
Ordering a Mojito is much like ordering a certain dish of your preference, let's assume a steak for my more visually-oriented reader - if any. If you order a steak, you pretty much know what to expect: a slice of cow. However, whether that cow was nurtured like a child or grew up as Cinderella has a direct impact on the price, as does the sauce, vegetables, other things they decided to put on your plate and the ambience of course. Luckily, the latter doesn't have much impact on the steak's flavour - the others do. The same is true for the Mojito: is top-shelf rum used? Is the mint properly muddled? Etcetera, and so on.
According to Bacardi, a proper Mojito is made like this:
1.5 oz BACARDI Rum
12 fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime
7 oz club soda
2 tbsp. simple syrup
(or 4 tsp. sugar)
For the smoothest majitos, gently crush mint leaves and lightly squeeze lime in a cool tall glass. Pour sweet syrup on top to cover and fill glass with ice. Add Bacardi Rum, club soda, and stir your emerging mojito well. Garnish with a lime wedge, a few sprigs of mint, toast, sip, and enjoy Bacardi mojitos with your friends.
The number of different flashy websites the company has dedicated to this one drink makes one wonder. I, for one, wonder why the hell there can't be just 1 website where I can find the information I want to know about Bacardi instead of ploughing through thousandths of megabytes of flash-movies featuring women throwing ice and mint around as if they're standing in the glass.
Nonetheless, three words come to mind when I read - and reread - that recipe: Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot. How in the name of all that is holy can that recipe state a rum-soda ratio like that? That's like throwing the rum in a swimming pool! I don't know about their glasses, but mine can barely hold the suggested club soda, not to mention all other ingredients. I don't think the wannabe-Cubans have intended to smother the rum like that, but it makes the recipe suspicious at best.
What is a Mojito? This was answered by someone in an IRC chat room a year ago: a drink in which mint, lime, sugar and (soda) water is used to mask the strong rum flavour. Nowadays, I feel obliged to alter that statement slightly - those ingredients are not used to mask the rum but to make an entirely new, balanced, drink: to enhance rather than conceal.
My own recipe:
Put 1 tsp. of sugarcane in a Collins (approx. 7 oz) glass, add 8 mint leaves and the juice of ½ lime plus the limes themselves and ½ oz of simple syrup. Muddle gently until you can clearly smell the mint. Fill the glass with ice-cubes and then crushed ice. Pour 1 ½ oz of rum into the glass, carefully stir, add some more crushed ice and finally soda water to top. Garnish with a lime wedge and 2 mint leaves and a straw.
As you can see, there are basically 3 steps when making this drink:
-Non-alcoholic ingredients muddled.
-Rum poured into the glass.
-Top and garnish.
It is absolutely imperative that you gently muddle the first ingredients; doing so thoroughly could break the mint leaves - the straw will not filter the tiny parts, so you'll be eating them later. The sugarcane functions as a grinder too and most force is applied to the limes: no mint leaves have to be harmed while making this drink! Moreover, the limes on the bottom of the glass make it look much better.
I add ice-cubes and crushed ice as opposed to merely crushed ice because this drink is best drunk over a longer period of time. Crushed ice will melt easier, diluting the drink too fast. You do want to have the glass filled with ice and cold fast though, so you're going to have to pick up that hammer if you don't have a machine to do your dirty work. Your little icy tower will have collapsed once you have poured the rum in, so you'll want to add some extra ice and soda water to fill the glass. And, of course, never forget that garnish! A thing to note is the placement of the straw; it is ideally placed in the hull of a lime. Toy around a bit by changing your straw's position, I promise you will notice a difference!
Tonight, I made 3 Mojitos - each with a different Bacardi flavour; Superior (white), Reserva (brown) and Black. I had originally set my mind on the one with Black, the one I like most on the rocks. However, the Superior really proved to be king: the mix of flavours is best when the rum is less dominant. Perhaps because I really like the taste of lime? Who knows, but I found the other two to be severely lacking in balance.
More information:
http://wiki.webtender.com/wiki/Mojito
This is basically the wiki for winos and other liquor enthusiasts - such as me. Posted is a link to the mojito entry.
http://groups.msn.com/DrinkBoy/messageboard.msnw
The drinkboy message board is the home turf where cocktail enthusiasts discuss their hobby. It's pretty hardcore, so it could be a little intimidating for newbies.
http://ipi.fi/~hessu/mojito/mojito-crushed.html
A link I found on aforemention drinkboy message board to a personal website. Posted is a link to his mojito entry and contains some good information on the drink.
That's about it for now. If you have any questions regarding cocktails, feel free to ask me. I've got loads of links to blogs, discussion boards and informational sites - so if you want to read up on some really good drinks, just ask!
