Bad Penny

It was a lovely day. So lovely that I thought that I would improve things slightly by adding a cocktail for everyone into the weekend enjoyment.

I had most of the ingredients for mojitos, which have been somewhat fashionable to make in bars lately. They always seem to do a pretty bad job of bartending them up when I have had them outside of a Serious Cuban restaurant. I, being me, naturally thought that I could improve on the classic process of making them. Here’s what happened:

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Everyone, and by that I mean nobody at all, knows that the vital ingredients to a classic mojito consists of the following:

• a light rum
• mint (crushed or muddled)
• ice
• lime juice
• simple syrup
• ?????
• profit!

First, since it always comes apart in the glass, then you have to strain it, then it gets in your teeth, I just went ahead and rolled over a sprig of mint thoroughly for each drink. This assured that the fresh minty goodness, which was growing unmolested outside just moments earlier, would flourish within the beverage.

Second I prepared the simple syrup on the small trashy stovetop that is in this particular kitchen. I really don’t like kitchens like this. Thankfully it’s not mine.

A simple syrup is nothing more than a super saturated solution.

I charmed the packed kitchen full of onlookers, both of them, with my quips from pre-teen chemistry lab.

Knowing this, I put some water on this horrible electric stovetop until it boiled. I put in enough sugar until it was just about saturated, and then let it cool a bit while I prepared the blender.

Ah the trusty blender. We would all be in the dark ages drinking and eating unworthy unblended foods with fully cubed ice without you. I put a healthy amount of 10 cane

(a highly decent light rum by the by)
into it with ice and the freshly juiced lime goodness into the blender. I topped it off with the hot syrup and pulsed the blending to crush the ice.

I do believe this is they key bit to the success here and the original makings of this drink: the temperature differential. Maybe this kind of thing is something they teach in super “I’m not a bartender, I’m a mixologist” school somewhere, but in the chemistry lab that is my universe, I figured it out myself.

What was this awesome breakthrough? I will tell you.

Effervescence.

That’s right friends. Fizzy goodness.

You can see how it settles into a more mellow light fix from the churning mad dog foaming of the blending fairly quickly.

I poured over the mint sprig in the glass with a little more ice on top and was done. The mint was intact so no fouling of the teeth with little bits of it you can’t seem to get rid of subtly, the super sweetness of the syrup is cut by the water from the pulverized and melted ice, juice, and rum, and the fizzing assists in accommodating the flavor from the mint into the drink.
And there you have it. Now bottoms up!

..and here was how they were received: