Mojito
White rum, lime and mint, muddled and built over ice, topped with soda.
Lime and mint, muddled and built over ice, lengthened with soda in place of the rum.
CC0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.
A Mojito in a tall glass topped with crushed ice and muddled mint
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
5 g mint
22 ml fresh lime juice
20 ml simple syrup
50 ml white rum
75 ml soda water
- 5 g mint
- 22 ml fresh lime juice
- 20 ml simple syrup
- 50 ml white rum
- 75 ml soda water
- ~42 ml water
Glass
Vessel
167 ml of liquid plus 230 ml of cubed ice occupies about 397 ml, inside the 400 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
- 5 g mint
- 22 ml fresh lime juice
- 20 ml simple syrup
- 125 ml soda water
- 5 g mint
- 22 ml fresh lime juice
- 20 ml simple syrup
- 125 ml soda water
- ~42 ml water
Glass
Vessel
167 ml of liquid plus 230 ml of cubed ice occupies about 397 ml, inside the 400 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
4 steps · 1m 25sMuddle the 5 g mint gently with the 22 ml fresh lime juice and the 20 ml simple syrup in the base of a Collins glass.
The mint is pressed just enough to release its oils, not pounded to a pulp. Torn or shredded leaf turns bitter and clouds the drink for no gain in aroma over a gentler bruise.
Fill the glass with ice.
Pour in the 50 ml white rum.
Top with the 75 ml soda water and lift once with a bar spoon to bring the mint and lime up through the ice.
Common pitfallBuilt in the glass rather than shaken, the drink relies on the lift after the soda goes in to carry the mint and lime up through the ice; skip that lift and the bottom half of the glass stays flat and sour.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
Method
3 steps · 1m 5sMuddle the 5 g mint gently with the 22 ml fresh lime juice and the 20 ml simple syrup in the base of a Collins glass.
Fill the glass with ice.
Top with the 125 ml soda water and lift once with a bar spoon to bring the mint and lime up through the ice.
Soda water takes the rum's whole volume rather than being added as an afterthought, so the drink stays the same length and the same proportion of mint and lime to liquid: a smaller Mojito with the rum left out would just taste more diluted for its size.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
A rum, lime and mint highball with a much-repeated but poorly evidenced ancestor in a 16th-century remedy attributed to Francis Drake, and a name whose real root is still argued over.
The most repeated story traces the Mojito to "El Draque," a medicinal mix of raw cane spirit, sugar, lime and mint said to be named for the English privateer Francis Drake after a 16th-century visit to Cuba 1. The story does not hold up well: England had no Caribbean sugar trade in the 1590s to have produced the spirit the legend requires, which is a specific and checkable problem with the dates rather than a matter of taste 2. A drink called the Drake is better documented later: a Havana writer recorded drinking one daily during the 1833 cholera epidemic for its supposed medicinal value 1.
The rum version is tied to the Bacardi company, founded by Don Facundo Bacardí Massó, whose rum reportedly replaced the older cane spirit in the Drake recipe; a 1940 account states plainly that once rum replaced aguardiente, the Drake was called a Mojito 1. The earliest printed recipe under a related name, "Mojo Criollo," dates to 1927 1.
The name's own origin is unsettled. One account derives it from mojar, to wet; another traces it to mojo, a term connected to the enslaved plantation workers credited with the drink's origin rather than to Drake at all 2. The often-told claim that Ernest Hemingway favoured the drink at a specific Havana bar has no documentary support in his own published writing 1.
- 1Mojito Cocktail Historydiffordsguide.com
- 2In the Mojito, History is Muddledwhetstonemagazine.com