la.foodblogging

Summer is high season for mint in the herb garden and…refreshing cocktails! Mojitos are in order!

Only a few years ago, this cocktail of Cuban origin was relatively unknown in these parts, but exploded onto the scene as the “it” drink. (Sayonara, cosmo!) Like many a cocktail, the mojito has a little bit of history, starting in the 1800s as a slave’s refreshment of sugar cane, water, and unrefined rum that they were producing. Somehow, it made its way around Cuba, stepping up in class at each stop, until finally it became the hipster’s drink of choice for Ernest Hemingway during his life there.

As hipster and classy as the mojito is nowadays, it’s quite a barbaric route you must take to make the stuff. A proper mojito requires a tiny little billy club, a “muddler,” to bludgeon the flavorful life out of mint leaves, sugar, and a splash of soda water. If you’re fancy, then you could even do it with sugarcane. A single cocktail gets the juice from one whole lime, leaving one half of the squozen fruit in the glass. Add crystal clear light rum, and if you spill a little more than intended, well, then pass that one my way! Give it a stir, add ice, soda water for fizz, and sip like the sexy cat you are. Just make sure to check your teeth every once in a while so you’re not flashing an herbaceous smile! ;)

Of course, if you’re just too hot to make your own, then head over to Ciudad in downtown la la land, for what I hear (but have not tested myself) is the best in town.

By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life