mojito | Dayton937

They are all ready and waiting…

July 11th is National Mojito Day and a perfect time to revisit this article, originally posted in July 2012. Cheers!

It is getting warmer, and that means things will be changing soon in the Miami Valley. If the weather is even a little warm or a little sunny, we will wear shorts and flip flops. We are all getting very distracted at work by the lovely days that we could be out enjoying the fine weather instead of being behind a desk. Lawns need mowing, cars need washing, and our closets are shedding all of their winter clothes in preparation for warmer times. Patios are also opening up across the city, and cocktails are being served on them to many very relaxed patrons. We start to gravitate to lighter and fruitier flavors, or anything frozen. There is one perennial that appears again when the spring and summer months roll around. It was born on a tropical island, and its combination of citrus, sweetness, and fresh mint never fails to bring us back there. The mojito is a staple on any patio in the country, and one of the few cocktails we have a fairly accurate history of.

The base of the mojito goes back as far as 1586. From a practical perspective, Sir Francis Drake’s raid on Havana that year for gold was a huge disaster. From a drinker’s perspective, it was the beginning of summer cocktail season. One of his associates mixed a drink with aguardiente (a very early and raw form of rum, loosely translated to “fiery water”), lime, sugar and mint. It was called “El Draque” (the Drake or dragon, since the Cubans were not fans of Sir Francis); the addition of the extra ingredients was to cover the harsh nature of the liquor. It continued its evolution in the fields of Cuba. The people working the fields would crush up the sugar cane and extract a very sweet liquid from it, which they called guarapo. That sweet liquid was a staple of the workers and the base of a new spirit, rum.

Rum is really the only thing that changed “El Draque” into the mojito. The other ingredients did not change, but the switch to rum also changed the people that drank it. It moved from the fields of Cuba to the patios. It became more refined, and evolved into a drink that Cuba started to be known for. It was first recorded as a mojito in a drink manual from a bar named Sloppy Joes in 1931. This was during Prohibition, when the nearest bars in Florida were in Cuba. This attracted sort of a cocktail tourism, and people started to discover the joys of rum cocktails. From Sloppy Joe’s it moved over to a bar named Bodeguita del Medio, which became THE place to get mojitos during the 20’s and 30’s. Ernest Hemmingway (more of a daiquiri man) was once quoted as saying “My mojitos at La Bodeguita. My daiquiris at El Floradita.” During this time, the cocktail picked up a few modern conveniences: “charged” water (soda) and ice. Both of these items were in very short supply in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. There is some evidence the ice was added a little earlier, but we know that both were part of the drink when it migrated, post-Prohibition, to the United States.

1939 World’s Fair, thank you for the drink

The mojito made its grand entrance to the United States at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 as the featured drink at the Cuban pavilion. It spread like wildfire through the U.S., becoming a hugely popular drink in bars all over the country. It was fresh, it was foreign, and people were enamored with the unique flavor. At least, it was popular until the 60’s. It was about that time that processed juices and other beverages became more fashionable to use as mixers, and technology trumped fresh juices and ingredients. The drink was pushed aside by the Long Island iced tea and the mai tai. It was not revived until the craft movements of the 80’s when beers and fresh ingredient cocktails came back into vogue, and processed cocktails started to share the limelight again with smaller cocktails from a long forgotten period. The resurrection continued into the 90’s. Latin food became quite the culinary fashion. During the height of the popularity of the cosmopolitan-driven series Sex and The City, The Los Angeles Times referred to the mojito as “a cosmo for the more adventurous”. And with its light and crisp flavor, they were not entirely wrong. It’s final step back onto its original throne was James Bond having one in “Die Another Day”, offering Halle Barry one as well. Now it is considered one of the top classic cocktails in the country, right along with the mai tai and Long Island iced tea. It is another cocktail that made Imbibe’s list of most influential cocktails of the century.

It is influential for a reason. Rum is a naturally sweeter liquor, and holds together the tartness of the lime and the bite of mint together in a very refreshing manner. It is simple enough to make in any bar or home, and during the warm spring and summer months it is incredibly refreshing. If you are looking for the best place in Dayton to find one, El Meson was an overwhelming favorite in an impromptu poll. Sidebar 410 and Meadowlark were also mentioned, as well as the kitchen of Superfry! If there are other places you feel make remarkable mojitos, let us know in the comments section. If you are going to make it at home, here is the traditional recipe.

Mojito baby picture

Mojito

2 sprigs of young mint
1 oz. of simple syrup
.75 oz. of fresh lime juice
1.5 oz. of light rum (Bacardi is an excellent choice)
2 dashes of Agonstura bitters (optional)
1.5 oz. club soda

In the bottom of a glass, lightly muddle the leaves off one sprig of the mint leaves in the simple syrup and lime juice. You want to press out the mint oil from the leaves without tearing them up, as this might bring some bitterness to the drink. Add the rum (and the bitters, if you choose to), ice, and the club soda, and stir. The other lime sprig is for garnish.

El Draque grew into one of the most recognized drinks of the world. Over the 400 years the cocktail has been in existence it has changed little, but maintained a following, sometimes large, sometimes only for the adventurous. Light and refreshing, it is a perfect warm weather drink. Cheers!

Yes, I would love to have a glass of rum. Thank you for asking!

George Washington is remembered as being one of the most respected individuals in American history. He was the General of the Army that defeated the British, he was the first President, and he was one of the great provocateurs before the American Revolution. He was a distiller, making his own beer and whiskey. He also knew quite well what spirits the people of colonial America liked to drink. He ordered 28 gallons of a particular spirit to distribute while he was running for the House of Burgess in Virginia. He also demanded it as a ration for his troops during the brutal winter they spent at Valley Forge and made sure that the fighting men got it before the officers did. When the war was over and Washington attended his inauguration, he (illegally) had a barrel of the finest imported. Whiskey was not a major American drink until after the war. The spirit that Washington, and all colonists were so fond of, was rum.

Rum was rough when it was first made. It was called kill-devil by most, but also referred to by several British slang words like rumbustion or rumbullion, both of which were terms referring to an upheaval. As it started to rise through the gentry, it became more refined with very basic distilling technology. It also became more popular as a drink to take on long voyages. Most ships of the era were outfitted with large supplies of beer and water. Rum did not go bad like the beer eventually did, nor did it suffer the same contamination that water was suspect to. Moreover, it was discovered that the long trips to Britain and America in oak barrels mellowed the rum and made it a much better quality liquor. It became a staple not only in the British navy, but on the pirate ships that were attracted to the Caribbean area for its developing wealth. The British were not prepared for the strength of the new spirit over beer. Rum started to be mixed with water, brown sugar, and lime. This had two effects: it stopped the sailors from being dead drunk and it gave them enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy. This gave the British a distinct advantage in sea combat. It remained a staple until 1970, when having buzzed sailors and modern weapons seemed to be a bad idea.

Barrels of rum aging.

America loved it as well. Rhode Island created rum that was as good, if not better, than rums coming from the tropics. The colonies were awash with it. Rum was in punches and any other drink you could ask for while traveling. It was also part of the slave trade, with people selling molasses to the colonies to get money to buy slaves. On average, colonists were drinking about four gallons per person per year. England took note of that, and imposed the Molasses Act in 1733 and Sugar Act in 1764, taxing the ingredients that helped to make rum. In 1775, the American Revolution began, and the rum started to flow out of America. Molasses became harder to come by. Not long after the revolution, as Americans moved west, whiskey started to be made in larger quantities in Ohio and Kentucky. Rum fell out of favor for a very long time, making a brief reappearance during Prohibition, then again after World War Two during the Tiki drink craze that swept the fifties and sixties.

Rum is distilled from one of two sources, either of which must come from sugar: molasses or sugar cane juice. Sugar cane juice is a little rarer (and known as rhum), so the bulk of the rum we all drink is made from molasses. It makes sense; the original rums were distilled from molasses, which was no more than a sticky, hard to dispose of byproduct when people were making sugar. There was just enough sugar left in it, with the help of some yeast, to turn it into something that was drinkable. Since rum was originally distilled among the many islands of the Caribbean, there is no one way for any particular rum to be created. Different yeast strains, stills, and methods are all employed by the various companies, making no two rums alike. It is hard to categorize all of the rum that is available in the market, but these are some common distinctions:

Light (silver) rum – They are milder and sweeter in general than most rums. The bulk of silver rum comes from Puerto Rico or Brazil (called cachaca). These are the ones you will find in most cocktails.
Gold rum – They usually have been aged in charred oak barrels, which gives them a little more color than the younger silvers. These barrels usually come from bourbon, which adds richness to the flavor.
Dark rum – Deep brown or red in color, these are more often used in cooking. They are aged longer, adding richer molasses and caramel tones to them. Dark rums usually come from Jamaica, Haiti, or Martinique.
Overproof rum – Gold colored rum with a very high ABV (Alcohol by Volume), usually around 151 proof.
Spiced rum – Spices are added, usually to gold rums, to enhance the natural flavor of the rum. They can also be darkened with caramel color.
Flavored rum – Usually silver in color and lower in ABV, they make up for it with added flavors. The flavors selected, usually tropical in nature, blend well with the natural sweetness of the rum. They are usually added to a mixer as an enhancement.

Fish House Punch, a staple of the Founding Fathers. This may explain some of the government.

Some places still offer gunpowder rum (exactly as it sound: run mixed with gunpowder), and there are many fine sipping rums as well that are made in pot stills and very small batches.

Rum is starting to make a comeback from a very long hiatus. The craft cocktail movement, with its love of the classics, has brought this spirit back. The first cocktails were made of rum, littering the early years of America with recipes. Fish House Punch, flips, shrubs, and daiquiris (who have their own day on July 19^th) all are cocktails that have a strong rum base. Mojitos are a wonderful summer cocktail, and the mai tai is considered a classic of the tiki era. Everything about rum invites fresh and tropical, perfect summer sipping. The complexity of rum offers an excellent base for cocktails.

From pirates to presidents, rum has been a spirit that has stayed close to the hands of people who enjoy a cocktail or two. Bourbon is considered the “spirit of America”, but the people who built America were fonder of their rum than whiskey of any sort. In recognition of the spirit and the day, find a restaurant with a patio that will make you a classic daiquiri. Summer is only going to last for so long, so enjoy!

From Cuba,with Lime

Keep the Rum Coming