Mojito, Mojito, Mojito!

We are still thinking about our trip to Riviera Maya, where we slurped down quite a few delicious mojitos.  We planned to share our mojito recipe with you this week, and by coincidence discovered that July 11 (also known in our house as free Slurpee day) was National Mojito Day.  Who knew? Mojitos fit our blog criteria: easy, tasty, fresh. Not to mention that Rhonda was trying to find a way to use up some of the mint that is taking over our garden!

A fun part of this blog is that we get to share some recipes and ingredients with you that you may not know much about.  Our featured ingredient this week is our Zaya Rum that was part of our Bananas Foster recipe that we posted last week.  Most friends know very little about rums.  They are frequently familiar with rums of less quality like, Myers, Bacardi, or Captain Morgan’s. We like Zaya for a multitude of reasons.  It is a blend of 12 different aged rums with the oldest rum being aged 18 years.  It is from the beautiful Caribbean island of Trinidad.  It has rich mahogany hues and a deep vanilla aroma.  High quality rums stand on their own and can be sipped neat if desired with just a slice of orange.  Try it out!

There are a variety of mojito recipes out there. Some suggest using regular sugar and muddling it in the bottom of your glass.  Craig and I prefer the consistency of simple syrup rather than straight sugar added to our drinks.  Plus, we have a lo-cal version to share with you as well that we found from LaurendaMarie.com.

To make the Zaya Mojito, you need simple syrup, limes, Zaya Rum, mint leaves, soda water, and ice.

When making simple syrup for mojitos, you can add 5-10 mint leaves to add some flavor to your syrup.

Pour the rum, simple syrup, lime juice and mint leaves into the glass.  Muddle with a pestle.

Add ice and top off with soda water.  Stir. Easy.  Tasty. Fresh

Zaya Mojito

2 oz simple syrup

Juice of ½ a lime

2 oz rum

5 fresh mint leaves

chilled soda water

ice

Mint and lime slice for garnish (optional)

• Make simple syrup from our recipe shared in Watermelon Wars!
• In a 12oz glass, pour in 2oz of the simple syrup, 2 oz rum, a few fresh mint leaves, and juice of half a lime. Muddle the contents using a pestle.
• Top the glass with ice and fill to the top with soda water. Stir.
• Garnish with fresh mint and a lime wedge

Serves 1.

For a lighter version that averages about 80 calories, you can make simple syrup with stevia sweetener instead of sugar.

Stevia simple syrup:

4-6 packets of stevia

1 cup of water

Place water and stevia in a small sauce pan. Stir.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and cool.

Mojitos are such a refreshing drink for summertime.  These will be a hit whether you make one for yourself as you sit on the porch and relax on a summer evening, or share with your friends at your next social gathering.

 

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Cheers,

Rhonda and Craig