Mojito Magic

Today. A sunny June Friday. It was time. A vision of mojitos danced in my head. Thus, a trip to Albertson's to get some fresh mint and limes.

Mojito Magic. When summer hits, this happens once or twice a week. Mojitos are the perfect summer refreshment. I love them to the max. I learned how to mix them a few years ago and now I am the Charetender. It's always nice to mix a fun cocktail for my friends. Especially on a hot day.

Mojitos are refreshing. The minty taste mixed with the lime is a perfect combination. Sometimes when I'm enjoying a mojito, I pretend I'm in Cuba, sitting on a beach, relaxing...not thinking about anything. Just being...for a few moments. I love those moments.

Here is the recipe I use. My friend, Alyssa Low, blogged about it last summer when I taught her how to mix them. I'm taking the recipe from her blog!

The Charetender (I named it after my friend, Charity!) Mojito:

Shopping List:
Bacardi Rum (clear rum, not the brown colored rum)
A fresh bunch of mint (from Albertson's near the lettuce and basil)
Ice
Lime seltzer water
Sugar
Limes (about a 1/2 a lime per drink)

Directions:
10 leaves of mint and two mint stems broken at the bottom of your jar/glass
1.5 T of sugar
4 small lime slices slightly squeezed into the jar then dropped to the bottom of jar

Take your muddler and mash, mash, twist, twist and smoosh your limes, mint leaves and sugar all up. The goal is to have the mint leaves all broken up, the limes totally pulped and juice mixing up with the sugar.

Next, pour 2 1/2 oz of Bacardi Rum into jar of mashed up mint/sugar/lime mix
6 ice cubes, or whatever makes the jar fill 1/2 up with ice. Invert jar into a cocktail shaker, with the jar acting as your lid/cover. Shake vigorously over the sink and make sure you hold on to the shaker and glass jar at the same time so the jar doesn't go flying off into your kitchen!!! Shake about 20 times to make sure the ice has cooled the lime/sugar/mint/rum mixture. Remove glass jar and pour the contents of the cocktail shaker into the jar. Take the lime seltzer water and pour about 1/2 glass jar worth around the interior of the cocktail shaker to get all that final mojito mixture out of the shaker and pour into the glass jar to the rim of the jar. Stir from the bottom to make sure the drink is well mixed.

Squeeze a final lime on top of mojito, stir, add straw (I like it to be a green straw) and it's ready!!

There you have it! Mojito Magic. ¡Disfrute!