love the mojito

saturday night, I performed bartender duties at a friend's annual halloween party. i've done this the last few years, and starting last year I decided that instead of trying to stock a ton of different liquor and mixers, i'd come up with a drink of the evening. last year it was spanish coffees, this year, mojitos.

now I know that mojitos are usually reserved for hot days in the summer, but since this is LA and it was 82 degrees on saturday, I bent the rules. i'd gotten the idea for mojitos from a restaurant in hollywood called xiomara that specializes in them. they even have a sugar cane press behind the bar where they squeeze the cane right into your glass, along with fresh mint, lime, and rum.

I wasn't quite willing to pony up the cash for raw sugar cane and a press, but I did manage to find a big bag of "sugar in the raw", some very fragrant fresh mint, and a whole lotta fresh limes. here's my recipe:

grab a drink shaker, and add about a tablespoon of sugar in the raw. next, add 3 or 4 fresh mint leaves. now, slice a lime in half and ream both halves into your shaker. make sure you squeeze all the juice you can get out of that lime. now get yourself a handy wooden or granite pestle and grind the lime, sugar, and mint together in the bottom of the shaker.

once you've mashed everything together, add about 6 shots of light rum. I was using bacardi limon, but normal light rum will work too. now toss in a handful of ice, and shake shake shake.

what you have in the shaker now is enough to make two drinks, so pour half of the contents into a highball glass and then top it off with club soda. enjoy.