Quarantine Cocktail No. 8: Mojito

Ever since I made the Rum Old Fashioneds the other night I've been on a bit of a rum kick. That continued recently when my parents and I did a virtual happy hour with my sister and we needed to come up with a drink. 

My mom has always been a big fan of mojitos, and after my parents' trip to Key West earlier this year she praised the fantastic drinks they had while they were there. 

They ate at multiple restaurants which were frequented by Ernest Hemingway, including Sloppy Joe's. If you're in Key West and you're eating at Hemingway's favorite restaurants, you have to get a mojito, so I've heard all about the great mojitos they had down there and decided to recreate them for our happy hour the other night. 

This is by far the most complicated drink I've made yet in the Quarantine Cocktail series, but it's worth it. It's got quite a few ingredients and is a little labor-intensive, but if you take the time to make one at home, you just might feel like you're on a tropical beach somewhere forgetting about the chaos going on around you. 

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, but you don't have to follow it exactly. Theirs calls for 1/4 cup of club soda, but we just added the club soda until the glass was full. Likewise, you can add as much sugar as you like to get the drink tasting just how you want. 

Mojito

Ingredients
10 mint leaves
1/2 lime, cut into wedges
2 tbsp. sugar
1.5 oz. rum
Club soda to top

Directions
1. Add one lime wedge and the mint leaves to a glass and muddle to release the lime juice and mint flavors
2. Add two more lime wedges and sugar. Muddle
3. Fill the glass with ice. Pour in the rum. Add club soda until the glass is full. Stir
4. Add one more lime wedge as a garnish and enjoy!