The Mojito, revisted

The food blogging community has been inundated with different fruity cocktail drinks throughout a good part of the summer.  Some of the drinks had only 2 ingredients while others could have up to 6 but one ingredient that stayed fairly constant was simple syrup.  I had never heard of simple syrup before but it is actually a "simple" "syrup:" 1 part water to 1 part sugar, pour into a saucepan and boil until the sugar dissolves (which literally takes under a minute).  This is a great alternative to trying to get sugar to dissolve in your mixed drink.

So with this new concoction in hand, I decided to revisit my recipe for mojitos.  I was also lucky enough to have some spearmint growing in my beach house's backyard, while at home I only had access to peppermint.  I feel like the peppermint did not have a strong enough flavor for the mojito and found myself stripping my plant bare whenever I wanted to make a pitcher.  With the spearmint, you only need about 6 or 7 large leaves to get a sweet, minty taste.  I'll definitely be taking some home to plant in my backyard.

To really bring out the mint flavor, I decided to throw the mint leaves in with the simple syrup while the sugar was dissolving.  I brought the mixture to a boil, stirred it until the sugar dissolved, and then muddled the mint leaves once the syrup had cooled back down to room temperature.  Everything else I basically kept the same.

The simple syrup and spearmint combination makes for a very sweet mojito, which I enjoyed immensely. There is a downside (or maybe an upside?) to this, however: the sweetness masks the alcohol in the drink.  I started with a cup of rum and could barely taste anything over the spearmint, so I added more lime and more rum.  The lime cut into the sweetness slightly but I still couldn't taste any alcohol.  After adding about 1 1/2 cups I decided that would have to be enough and believe me, it was.  This is a very delicious and sweet treat and I'd certainly recommend playing around with the proportions in order to get your preferred taste.

Mojito (pitcher)

Ingredients

6 – 7 large spearmint leaves

1 c sugar

1 c water

2/3 c lime juice

1 ½ c of rum

1 L club soda

Lime slices

Directions

Place the water, sugar, and spearmint leaves into a pot and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature.  Muddle the mint leaves until they become fragrant, about 1 minute.  Pour syrup into a pitcher and add the lime juice, rum, and club soda.  Stir to mix and serve over ice.  Garnish each glass with a slice of lime.  

Posted by Ali B at 2:01 PM