Cuba's Gift to the World: Mojitos (aside from Salsa Music)

It's Saturday evening, the weekend before my last week of work as a receptionist and I'm drinking the best mojito on the planet--made by me of course. I think that food and music are two key elements of culture and while I like Cuban food and music and I'm of Cuban descent a) I'm vegetarian and cannot eat most Cuban food and b) I didn't grow up listening to Salsa music much so I'm not very good at dancing to it. When you really think about it there's not much that's characterisitically Cuban about me besides the way I look, and perhaps my love for mojitos. I'll share my favourite recipe:

My Cuban Mojito
the juice of one large lime
4 ounces of Bacardi
7 sachets of Splenda sugar substitute
soda water/club soda
6 mint leaves, plus 2 for garnsih
crushed ice

1. Combine the lime juice, sugar and mint leaves in a bowl or measuring cup and mash until the mint fragrant become noticeable. Do not discard the lime rinds.
2. Place a strainer over the glass you intend to have your drink in -I like the tall, slender bar glasses-and strain the lime juice mixture into your glass
3. Add the bacardi and stir
4. Slice one half of the juice lime into strips and add to glass
5. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of crushed ice and fill to brim with soda water
6. Stir and enjoy. A proper mojito in this manner should yield about 8 ounces.

I've never actually been to Cuba, but I did go to a Cuban restaurant/bar/disco when I lived in Madrid in which many Cubans worked. I assume the mojito I had there was an authentic recipe and since I'm not a big fan of the taste of Bacardi, I gave the drink a thumbs down. For my 24th birthday party, which I hosted and cooked for and will never do so again, I served mojitos and everyone loved them. I had some friends over for dinner some week ago and followed a more "traditional" recipe and the results were disappointing. My partner is not a big fan of sweets but he gave a "thumbs up" to this recipe, as did the 15+ guests at my birthday party, most of whom are not big drinkers.

I say the new mojito should be packed with citrus, strong and sweet. In order to mask the unpleasant taste of Bacardi (or vodka or gin) you need a lot of citrus power. The sugar balances it all out and using Splenda is easy on the teeth and la linea or your figure.