The Mojito , essentially a rum Collins with muddled mint, is an early-twentieth-century Cuban invention that became popular with Americans in Prohibition-era Havana, then for the most part fell off the cocktail map until its resurgence in the 1980s at the hands of Cuban Marielito emigrants in Miami—whence it spread to become second only to the Cosmopolitan in US bars. This refreshing cooler has been a common call ever since, and deservedly so, despite critics who deride it as cliché and bartenders who regard it as too much trouble to make. The first published recipe appears as the Mojo de Ron in Libro de Cocktail, a 1929 manual by one Juan A. Lasa: “two or three fingers” of Bacardi rum, the juice of a lime, and a barspoon of sugar, all combined in a tall glass with cracked ice, seltzer, one of the squeezed-out lime halves, and a sprig of mint. Lasa also includes a gin version and a “Criollo,” or Creole one, which is the rum one but with half the lime juice and added Angostura bitters. The name “Mojito” appears in print two years later, in the drinks booklet put out by Sloppy Joe’s bar in Havana. See Sloppy Joe’s. Later recipes specified muddling the sugar and lime with mint leaves before adding the other ingredients; this results in a far superior Mojito (as does decreasing the lime juice or increasing the sugar to taste).
Cuban folklore traces the Mojito’s origin back to 1586, when Sir Francis Drake’s crew cured their fever with a similar mixture called “El Draque” (mint, sugar, lime, aguardiente). Nothing in the historical record supports this. However, there’s ample evidence that a similar compound called the “Draquecito” was prescribed to prevent cholera in mid-nineteenth-century Cuba; this could very well have inspired the Mojito. Some Cuban authorities maintain, without further evidence, that inspiration struck an unnamed bartender at one of the bars at la Concha beach near Havana one day in 1910 or thereabouts, and the drink spread from there. It is not impossible, anyway.
Recipe: In a tall glass, stir together 15 ml lime juice and 5 ml sugar. Add 5 or 6 mint leaves and muddle them lightly. Fill the glass with ice, add 45 or 60 ml light, Cuban-style rum (or gin), stir, and top off with chilled soda water. Stir once, add a mint sprig, and finish with a straw.
See also Collins.
Berry, Jeff. Beachbum Berry’s Potions of the Caribbean. New York: Cocktail Kingdom, 2014.
Curtis, Wayne. And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. New York: Crown, 2006.
Doudoroff, Martin. Martin’s New and Improved Index of Cocktails & Mixed Drinks from the First Golden Age of the American Bar. iOS8 app. Version 1.1.3, October 20, 2015 (accessed October 30, 2015).
Lasa, Juan A. Libro de Cocktail. [Havana]: n.p., 1929.
By: Jeff Berry