Happy Hour

It's Friday! And it's after 5 o'clock! Time to celebrate.

We're having tacos for dinner tonight so I was planning to make margaritas, but then I thought - we've got all of the spearmint going ass wild in the garden, why not try mojitos?

I was never really into mojitos. I must not have had a very good one for my first experience, because the general idea is very appealing to me. I love fresh-tasting drinks that aren't too sweet. Anything with lime, mint, and club soda is a winner in my book so I figured it was time to give the mojito another shot. When I was in Guatemala with my sister B in March, she got me hooked on them. We were visiting this teeny tiny town on a lake and one of the restaurants had a Happy Hour special - 2 Mojitos for 25 Quetzales. That's about $1.50 per drink. Score. We ditched Seth, who was recovering from having his wisdom removed (I'm a good wife) and had a lovely afternoon sipping mojitos in Panajachel.

Back to today. Time for some homemades. I picked a bunch of spearmint from the garden and rinsed it off. Next I gathered my white rum, limes, powdered sugar, and club soda. Most recipes call for granulated white sugar, but I found one for an authentic "Cuban mojito" that used the powdered sugar and I figured that would dissolve more easily. I wasn't about about to whip up some simple sugar. Ain't nobody got time for that at 5 o'clock on a Friday.

First, I placed 4-6 mint leaves in my glass.

There they are - mint leaves, fresh from the garden in my whiskey tumbler.
I'm going to need to buy some official mojito glasses.

Next, I added about a teaspoon of powdered sugar and the juice from half a large lime. I also threw in a small lime wedge because one of the recipes mentioned that the bitterness of the lime's "white pith" was important. No idea what that means, but I didn't want to take any chances.

The next step is to "muddle" all of that together. It sounds really intimidating on all of the recipes. Apparently it's really easy to fuck up on this part and mojito snobs can really distinguish a good muddler from a bad one. I just used a little plastic spoon and squished everything together. Works for me.

Finally, I filled the glass with crushed ice, added 1.5 ounces of white rum and topped it off with club soda. The recipe said to use 2 ounces of rum, but I know myself - I'll pound this drink so it's definitely a good idea for me to keep it light.

MmmHmm look at that gorgeous green color.

It's pretty good for my first try! I can taste the mint and the lime and it's definitely not too sweet for me. Some people, like Seth, might like a bit more sugar but I think it's delicious as is. I can't wait until the limes on our tree are ready to be picked! Too bad we don't have any rum in the garden - I'm going to need to go get another bottle if I'm going to be sharing these with everyone at dinner tonight!