Mojito

Today we know Mojito as a refreshing, aromatic and sweet-sour mixture of light rum, mint, lime juice, sugar/sugar syrup and soda. The lime leaves are lightly pounded with a mortar. Alcohol, lime juice and sugar/sugar syrup are added. The ingredients are stirred while the glass is filled with crushed ice in layers. It is all topped off with a splash of soda. But Mojito began its life in far simpler circumstances. Although the background of Mojito is somewhat obscure, it at least started with a mixture of alcohol and mint. Such a combination makes sense since menthol, the cooling substance in mint, is soluble in ethanol, but barely soluble in water. At a time and place where ice was not available and the liquor was quite raw, the aromatic, cooling and numbing effect of mint would have been important to counteract the raw and burning alcohol.
 

A fire-breathing dragon

The actual mixing of mint with sugarcane spirit only became common after the discovery of America. Not that the combination of mint and sugarcane spirit was not available before this, but access to land, the possibility of sea transport and cheap labour in the form of slaves accelerated things. The man who is said to play a central role in the forerunner of the Mojito, Sir Francis Drake, was of course not only involved in mixing cocktails. If he did this at all (it is actually uncertain whether this drink was mixed by himself or his crew), but also in plundering Spanish settlements and galleons, selling slaves to sugarcane plantations and, in return, buying aguardiente de cana, a crude form of sugarcane spirit. Sir Francis also engaged in activities that are considered more politically correct by today's standards. He made maps and collected plant material. And it is said that one of his ships have had mint on board. The drink is said to have gone by the name El Draque, Draquicito or something similar.
 
The Spanish nickname for the drink, however, casts doubt on whether it was actually Sir Francis and his crew who composed it and perhaps suggests that it was rather the Spaniards he plundered who named it after their archenemy: Draque carries associations with more than just Sir Francis Drake's surname, but also a fire-breathing dragon, and perhaps the drink burned as well as the villages and ships Sir Francis set on fire.
 

Mixing citrus fruit with alcohol

If, however, the drink was invented on board Sir Francis' ship, it is highly uncertain whether lime was used to begin with. Mixing citrus fruit with alcohol only became common in the British navy in 1795, when it was discovered that this could prevent scurvy.
 
In any case, after this the drink has been continuously developed. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century brought with it faster transport of ice, artificial refrigeration and artificial production of carbonated water. All components that are important in today's Mojito. Not least, it brought with it column distillation, which provided the basis for increasingly lighter and more neutral spirits. And it was only when the Cubans, among others, began to make lighter rums with this method that the drink Mojito got its name.
 

Mojito recipe

• 5 cl light, bright rum
• A handful of mint leaves
• Juice of half a lime
• A dash of sugar syrup
• Soda
• Crushed ice

Gently pound the mint leaves into the bottom of the glass with a cocktail mortar. Add the rum, lime and sugar syrup. Stir and add crushed ice in several batches. Top with soda.