The Mojito became one of my favorite cocktails during my 12 plus years living about as close to Cuba as you can get in SW FL, where the 9 months of summer per years lended the perfect tropical climate to enjoy this cocktail throughout the year. Throughout my years of Mojito tasting and making there I noticed that my favorite versions were those that balanced the right amount of sweetness and mint flavor with the lime rather than those that tasted more like tart soda water. To me the perfect mojito is a delicate mint, lime, and sugar balance that allows you to taste each ingredient fully and perfectly in sync with the others and I have made many attempts over the years to strike the balance, not always successfully. So often I felt the mint got lost so easily in the other ingredients when just muddling in fresh pieces so I strategized ways to infuse more of that fresh mint flavor into each mojito until I found what is, for my taste, the perfect mint mojito trifecta secret: mint sugar, mint simple syrup, and fresh mint in each Mojito give it that dynamic pop of mint needed to stand up to the fresh lime and any other flavors you might decide to infuse. This hypnotic aqua blue version incorporates the lovely Hypnotique liqueur’s tropical notes and berries and the lovely blue green hues look like April showers and Earth Day in a glass!
Makes: 4 Servings
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces white rum, divided (Cachaca Rum, Coconut Rum, and Raspberry Rum are also delicious in this!)
- For a non-alcoholic mocktail version of this recipe, see my recipe notes below!
- 4 ounces Hypnotique, divided (You will need to add more Hypnotique to each glass if you’d like to make it the deeper blue color as pictured in the photo. If so keep adding Hypnotique until the desired shade of blue is reached)
- 4 limes juiced, divided
- 1/2 cup fresh mint simple syrup, divided (See Recipe Below)
- 1/2 cup fresh mint for muddling and garnishing
- Soda water, a small can or bottle (You will only need a splash of soda water to top each mojito.)
- Blueberries or Raspberries, optional
Mint Simple Syrup (Makes 1 cup):
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup fresh mint, plus additional if desired to add to the simple syrup once cooked
- 1 cup water
Directions:
- To make the mint simple syrup, add a few sprigs of fresh mint to one cup of sugar in a food processor and mix on high speed until the mint is fully incorporated into the sugar. The sugar should be tinted green and there should only be small specks of mint leaves remaining throughout the mixture. Pour the sugar into a small saucepan, add one cup of water and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to help the sugar dissolve. Once the mixture and sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and let cool. You can seal leftover syrup in a container and keep in the fridge for about one week.
- Sprinkle 1/4 cup of fresh mint in each of four glasses. Once cooled, pour in 1-2 oz of mint simple syrup (depending how sweet you like it) into each glass along with juice of one fresh lime and muddle together breaking down fresh mint to release oils. Add crushed ice, extra mint leaves if preferred, and mix. Then pour in rum and stir. Pour hypnotique liqueur over mixture, add a splash of soda water, then add berries, if desired and stir.
- Sip, stir, and repeat!
Recipe Note: For the non-alcoholic mocktail version of this drink, omit the Hypnotique Liqueur and the rum. Add the mint simple syrup, mint leaves, lime juice, seltzer, and raspberries, if desired, as directed in the recipe above. Add in a couple ounces of coconut water in place of the rum and omit the Hypnotique. If you wish to go a step further and substitute the magical color drama of the Hypnotique for this mocktail, you can steep 1 tablespoon of butterfly pea flowers in 2 cups of hot water, then strain over ice to cool which will give you a gorgeous, healthy, and natural deep blue tea. Once cooled you can then pour a splash of the blue tea into each glass. When it hits the lime juice it will change from deep blue to purple due to the acidity in the lime which is still gorgeous and magical to watch!
Enjoy this recipe or have questions? Feel free to leave a comment!
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