For the longest I can remember, the Mojito has been my drink of choice for a warm sunny day, while laying comatose on a beach. Sounds like pure bliss, doesn't it? Damn right!
I had my first Mojito at a Cuban restaurant and bar called Azúcar in Jersey City, NJ. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that I'd discovered true love. Sadly, while the bar is now closed permanently (at the time of writing this), the memory of its legendary Mojito lives on.
Indeed, it can be argued that the Mojito has earned its spot as one of the all-time greatest cocktail inventions.
Modern bartenders have attempted to concoct their own recipes by tinkering a bit here and there; but the classic lime Mojito remains eternal.
A Bit of History
Origins of the Mojito can be disputed - one version traces its invention back to 1586, when the famed explorer, Sir Francis Drake, popped by Havana, Cuba to ransack the city of its gold. The invasion totally sucked - Drake and his chaps suffered an epidemic of scurvy and dysentery on board their ship - and "El Draque" was created (from: aguardiente de caña [a crude form of rum from sugarcane], sugar, lime, and mint) to kick scurvy's butt.
According to another theory, a bunch of historians figured that African slaves who worked in the Cuban sugarcane fields during the 19th century were instrumental in the cocktail's origin. Guarapo, the sugarcane juice often used in Mojitos, was a popular drink amongst the slaves who helped invent its name. It never originally contained lime juice.
The Mojito gained in popularity around the mid-1800s, after the creation of Bacardi. It's said that Ernest Hemingway was a big fan of the drink. He would routinely chill and toss a few back at a local bar in Havana called La Bodeguita del Medio, and get hammered in Key West, Florida. La Bodeguita del Medio's epic Mojito would attract people like Pablo Neruda, Josignacio and Salvador Allende.
I personally don't really care who invented the Mojito. I'm just glad the universe kept him alive long enough to get the job done. Feel free to try out my Olde Mojito recipe below if you like, and invite me over if you get it right.
¡Salud!
