3 Mojitos from Traditional to my Favorite | The Educated Barfly

What’s up guys welcome back. Today we’re going to be deep diving the mojito and I’m going to show you three different approaches. The drinks industry as a whole and this is especially true for the home bartender really suffers from traditionalism. That is, the idea that there is only one correct approach to a drink and that’s it, and the most beloved classics such as old fashioned s and whiskey sours and of course mojitos really inspires this attitude. But the truth, is that there isn’t just one way to approach a cocktail. For most/if not all cocktails there are several “correct” builds. I like to say that there is no such thing as right and wrong but there is such a thing as good and bad and the journey is learning to differentiate between the two. That type of traditionalism is the enemy of progress and we’d all do well to banish that attitude.

So on that note, today we’re going to show you three different ways to approach this drink. Each variation only slightly different from the other, and hopefully, if we’ve done our job, you’ll see that those small differences have a pretty major impact on the final drink and that all of these variations are worth a mix.

The origins of the Mojito are a bit muddy. Some say the drink originated from an earlier drink discovered by explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake while exploring Cuba, some say that Havana Bartender Constantino Rabailagua created it in Havana at the La Floridita bar and some others say that it was Cuban bartenders riffing off the Mint Julep that gave life to this cocktail. Wherever and whenever it comes from we know that it’s a Cuban drink made with good rum, mint and lime and that it is an essential highball drink that everyone should learn. The mojito, more than many many other drinks is one of those seemingly simple drinks with the ability to transport you to another time and place when you drink it, it’s also one of those drinks that evolves as it dilutes giving you marked difference between the first and last sip.

First things first we’re going to build the most common modern mojito you’ll find when ordering this out at a quality bar. This is the version that most people expect when ordering this drink.