Food Friday : Mojito Non-Classico (with blueberries)

A few years ago Nick and I went to Havana, Cuba, where I had a Mojito for the first time. Cuba is the birthplace of this minty-rum cocktail, and was Ernest Hemingway’s favourite drink. In fact, the exact spot we had our drink was in the lobby of the hotel/apartment building where he lived for many years.

Now for the full disclosure … while the environment was perfect, the drink itself was not up there on the list of things I love to drink. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really think it tasted as good as I anticipating this exotic Cuban drink to be. In my opinion it tasted too strong and boozy, with not quite enough sweetness. And having tried it the once, had not had a second one …. well, that’s until this month, after reading a modified recipe for the cocktail on one of my favourite blogs, ‘love, Maegan’. She changed up the classic Mojito by adding blueberries! I went one step further by also adding a splash of blueberry-pomegranate juice, and doubling the soda-water, making it a tall drink rather than a short one. That is all that was required to turn this into one of my new favourite cocktails! And given the bumper crop of mint in our herb-garden, this special ingredient will be on hand for the rest of the summer.

How to Make a Mojito Non-Classico

- 2 teaspoons sugar
- juice from 1/2 a lime (or a whole key lime, which were the kind that we had)
- a few blueberries (fresh or fresh-frozen as ours were)
- 1 1/2 oz white rum
- 3 oz (or more to your taste) soda water
- 1 oz or so of blueberry pomegranate juice (or Pom Pomegranate juice)

Optional: Make some ice-cubes with blueberries and juice/water.

In a tall glass: add sugar, lime juice and mint leaves. Smash/grind them together with the end of a kitchen implement, or properly with a cocktail mudler if you have one (we don’t and had to make do!). Add rum, soda water and juice and plenty of ice!

As for Havana, we talk about it frequently and would love to go back. It was so interesting and beautiful. When we were there we followed up our visit with a few days at a beach resort, but really loved the city part of the holiday more. We stayed in a hotel with a gorgeous rooftop pool, so we swam every evening with the days being spent exploring this remarkable historic city.

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