Put the lime in the coconut...

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11 June 2010 @ 04:19 pm

As some of you may or may not know, I was a bartender for several years before I graduated from college (and also after i graduated, if truth be told). I liked bartending; I had regulars and liked mixing drinks. I don't get to pull out my knowledge like I used to, even though we have a fully stocked bar in the pantry at home. I drink wine most of the time, and there's really very little art to pulling a frozen glass from the fridge and pouring a beer for Nolan. I make the occasional gin and tonic, but today, because it's Friday, and JUNE, and OHMYGOSH HOT here, I decided it was mojito time.

Close your eyes, all you Baptists and abstaining readers.

The first thing you need for a mojito is MINT. I happen to have mint growing in the backyard (not because I nurtured it or anything, only because it survived when the rest of the '08 herb garden died in the first week.

My herb garden is a sad, sad place.
Have some daylilies.

Ignore the dead stuff on either side of them.

You don't need daylilies for a mojito. I got distracted. Am drinking the finished product, so... you know...

It happens.

Anyway.

These are your cast of characters.

1 1/2 Oz. Bacardi Superior Rum
Club Soda
12 Mint Leaves
1/2 Lime
2 Tbsp. Simple Syrup or 1 Tbsp. Sugar

If you don't have mint bushes in the garden, you can certainly go to the grocery store and get some there. They sell them. *nod* It's cheaper to cut them from a bush, though.

Okay.

They don't sell rum at the grocery store. Not in Texas, anyway. So get thee to a liquor store and buy some. Club soda is easily procurable anywhere, as are limes. Simple syrup is super easy to make.

A cup of water, a cup of sugar, stir over heat 'til the sugar is dissolved, chill.

That's it. Easy, right? Maybe that's why they call it 'simple' syrup and not 'horribly complex and convoluted' syrup. Which doesn't make me want to sip at it, at all.

You put your leaves and lime in the bottom of a glass and muddle them - that's the technical term for "mash the crap out of;' it releases the juices and the flaaaaaavor and stuff.

See? All muddled.

Then you fill the glass with ice.

Add 2 oz RUM, 2 (plus) tablespoons simple syrup, and fill the rest with soda.

And then you sit on the back porch under the fan and hope for a breeze while you sip.

Enjoy!

Tags: picture, recipe

I am:: on the patio

I hear:: Something's Gotta Give - Ella Fitzgerald

23 comments | Leave a comment

23 comments —

( 23 comments — Leave a comment )

humbuggirl on June 11th, 2010 09:35 pm (UTC)

When I went to Estonia last year mojitos were pretty much all I drank.

Also, they don't sell rum at the grocery store? Seriously? I am sort of astonded. Over here half the supermarket is dedicated to booze. There's actually a big debate on the role that supermarkets play in binge drinking problem that we apparently have Britain because the alcohol there is so much cheaper than anywhere else.

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 09:40 pm (UTC)

I can't speak for the rest of the rest of the continental United States, but in Texas, not only do you have to go to a liquor store for hard liquor (anything that's not beer and wine) they're also not open on Sunday. Because I guess it's not okay to buy liquor on the Sabbath?

I dunno. :)

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humbuggirl on June 11th, 2010 09:52 pm (UTC)

I think in the past we couldn't buy it on a Sunday either but the law has been relaxed.

Is it the same for bars?

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 09:55 pm (UTC)

*laughs*

No.

I think bars aren't allowed to serve alcohol until noon on Sunday, though. The (TABC) Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission is very srs bidness.

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maureen on June 11th, 2010 10:40 pm (UTC)

That is SO TRUE. I was in a Texas airport once on a Sunday morning around 9 or 10. I was cooling my heels in between my second and third flight and had been up for 8 hours or so already. I was sitting at a bar in a restaurant and ordered a Bloody Mary to go with my eggs. The waitress GLARED at me and informed me it was Sunday and I was in Texas. She was loud and hateful about it. I wanted to crawl under my bar stool, heathen out of town Catholic that I am.

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 11:27 pm (UTC)

Nolan tried to order a beer at brunch one Sunday (it was 11:00?) and was shot down cold. It's a stupid law, in my opinion.

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heyurs on June 12th, 2010 12:45 am (UTC)

North Carolina and South Carolina, too! :D

Hecks, used to, in SC, they rolled the sidewalks up at 4pm on Sundays. I dunno if it is still like that. I hated that place anyway. My father and his people are from there. UGH!

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sue_bridehead on June 12th, 2010 08:16 am (UTC)

It's the same in Oklahoma. But most other states I've visited have all variety of alcohol at the grocery stores. Now that I live in Arizona, I can say that the booze is much cheaper without having to go into a liquor store.

P.S. In Oklahoma, not only are liquor stores closed on Sundays, they're also closed on election days - or so I've heard. Guess they want to make sure the voters aren't all f***ed up when they mark their ballots. ^_^

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cosmo_jenny on June 11th, 2010 09:39 pm (UTC)

Add 2 oz simple syrup, 2 (plus) tablespoons simple syrup, and fill the rest with soda.
Wait, where is the booze? *laughs*

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 09:40 pm (UTC)

Whoops. *hiccough*

All edited to, you know, include the rum and stuff. :D

Edited at 2010-06-11 09:42 pm (UTC)

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leigh_adams on June 11th, 2010 10:29 pm (UTC)

1. In my hometown, you can't buy liquor at all. They can only sell beer, and they can't even do that on Sundays (same for MS, too, though we liquor flowed like the River Jordan in Oxford... >.<)

2. I am Baptist. I love Jesus, but I like to drink a little. Or a lot.

3. Mojitos... NOM. Now I'm craving one.

4. The liquor store down the street knows all of our names (my roommates and me), plus our toxins of choice. This isn't a bad thing, is it?

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 11:07 pm (UTC)

Hee. The liquor store guy automatically gets out a bottle of Sapphire when I walk in...

I love Jesus, too. And I think he'd appreciate a good mojito.

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brendanm720 on June 11th, 2010 10:35 pm (UTC)

You put your leaves and lime in the bottom of a glass and muddle them - that's the technical term for "mash the crap out of;' it releases the juices and the flaaaaaavor and stuff.

Mister Brown [points to icon] wishes me to remind you that you also release the essential oils. He is not satisfied with 'stuff', except in that it is a fantastically versatile multitasker. :-D

Also, aren't you supposed to put a little sugar in the bottom of the glass with the leaves and the lime so that the sugar can tear them into itty bitty pieces? Or is that just a mint julep?

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 11:02 pm (UTC)

I actually got this recipe off the Bacardi website, so... *shrug* It couldn't hurt, though, right?

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maureen on June 11th, 2010 10:35 pm (UTC)

What a BEAUTIFUL drink. I do love me some lime... but rum has always been a bit too sweet for me. Add sugar to the mix and yeah, I probably wouldn't like it. You make it look and sound pretty good though.

I think it's funny that you think a 'simple' syrup is something you cook on the stove! My rule of thumb is anything more than three steps is COOKING and therefore a pain in the ass. Like I've told you, I'll happily park myself at the bar in your kitchen and drink and talk to you while YOU cook... but for me? Not happening. I've been making deviled eggs lately and the way I complain about it you would think it's a four course meal.

So. On the low sugar easy steps route... I have a great and simple recipe for a wonderful frozen margarita. It's not too sweet, either. I learned this from my old gay boss. You gotta love the gays... they know their drinks.

You get yourself a tube of frozen Minute Maid limeaid, right? Dump it in a blender. Take that tube and fill it up with tequila (the higher quality the better... I like Patron silver) and dump it in the blender. Fill the tube up one more with with water and dump it in the blender. Add a few handfuls of ice. Press go. Viola. A frozen, slushy, limey wonder. That's my most complicated drink recipe.

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 11:03 pm (UTC)

Mmmm. Carrie cannot do tequila due to a series of bad choices involving many, many shots of tequila in 1993 and culminating with the bespoilment of a favorite purse. I'll make YOU one, though!

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seegrim on June 11th, 2010 11:14 pm (UTC)

Yuuuuum.

I had my first mojito in London, followed by the second shortly after.

I approve of this drink.

Glad you're having a good time! :D

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carrie_leigh on June 11th, 2010 11:17 pm (UTC)

Yup. happy Friday to me. :)

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jessicakmalfoy on June 12th, 2010 12:07 am (UTC)

seriously, i think i'm going to make this tonight, calorie counting be damned. it's me, all alone in the house to night with 2 creepy zombie movies.

and apparently walmarts in alabama don't sell liquor either, i learned on my last visit there. weird.

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carrie_leigh on June 12th, 2010 01:41 am (UTC)

I didn't eat dinner and had mojitos, instead. We'll call the lime a serving of fruit. ;)

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jessicakmalfoy on June 15th, 2010 05:34 pm (UTC)

If that's the case, I had 2 fruit servings that day!

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goeungurl on June 12th, 2010 04:25 pm (UTC)

Oh yay! So much fun. We only have hard liquor in liquor stores too in GA. And no alcohol on Sundays unless you're at a bar. Based on the comments, looks like all of us folks in the South are in the same predicament.

Anyway. Glad you're having fun and making pretty, yummy drinks. :)

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xoxrhapsodyxox on June 14th, 2010 02:08 pm (UTC)

That looks/sounds delicious! I've been meaning to figure out how to make a mixed drink from rum ever since Barrett and I toured a rum factory in Jamaica! They handed out lots of tasty samples... well, I only liked the ones that were mixed.

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