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Mojitos

(recipe, Jenni Fleetwood & Marina Filippelli)

Introduction

A refreshing Cuban cocktail, this incorporates rum, mint, and lime. Take your time drinking it and the flavor of the mint will gradually intensify.

Ingredients

  1. Juice of 1 lime
  2. 1 Tbsp. superfine sugar
  3. 4 fresh mint sprigs
  4. 5 Tbsp. white rum
  5. Crushed ice (see Note)
  6. 6 Tbsp. soda water or club soda

Steps

  1. Mix the lime juice and sugar in a cocktail shaker and shake until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Add three of the mint sprigs, the rum, and some crushed ice, and shake vigorously.
  3. Pour into a tall glass, top with the soda water, and decorate with the remaining mint.

Note

If you don't have a refrigerator that delivers crushed ice or a blender with sufficiently tough blades, put the ice in a freezer bag, wrap it in a dishtowel, and beat it against the kitchen counter — it's noisy, but it works. Shaking the cocktail bruises the mint leaves, releasing their flavor. If you do not have a cocktail shaker, bruise the mint leaves by hand before adding them. Culinate editor's note: You can use mint simple syrup in place of the superfine sugar.