The mojito is Cuba's most famous export: rum, mint, lime, and soda water, balanced into something that tastes like a vacation. It's easy to make at home and a great place to start if you're working through a beginner's guide to mixology.
The Classic Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 oz (60ml) white rum
- 1 oz (30ml) fresh lime juice
- 2 tsp (10ml) simple syrup
- 8-10 fresh mint leaves
- Club soda, to top
- Lime wheel and mint sprig, for garnish
Method:
- Muddle the mint leaves gently with the simple syrup.
- Add the lime juice and rum.
- Fill the glass with ice.
- Top with club soda.
- Stir once or twice and garnish.
If you'd rather have the build on your phone while you muddle, the interactive Mojito recipe card has an ml/oz toggle, serving scaling, and an ingredient checklist.
Getting the Muddle Right
Muddling is the one technique that makes or breaks a mojito. Place the mint leaves in the bottom of the glass with the simple syrup (the syrup coats the leaves and helps protect them from tearing), then press gently with a muddler rather than crushing. You're releasing the mint's essential oils, not pulverizing the leaves; stop as soon as the mint smells fragrant. Muddle only the leaves, never the stems, which add a bitter, grassy note if crushed. White rum is the traditional base (Bacardi Superior, Havana Club 3 Años), chosen because its clean flavor doesn't compete with the mint. Save gold or aged rum for a slightly more complex version, and skip spiced rum entirely, since its baking-spice notes clash with mint rather than complementing it.
Mint on the counter and rum in the cabinet, but the ratio's fuzzy?
Pocket Bartender turns what you've got into the exact mojito build, muddle included.
Ingredients Worth Getting Right
Fresh lime juice is non-negotiable: bottled juice tastes flat next to the real thing, and a mojito's brightness depends on it. Spearmint is the traditional choice over peppermint, which is stronger and easier to overdo. For the simple syrup, homemade (equal parts sugar and hot water, cooled) dissolves cleanly and costs almost nothing to make; agave nectar or honey both work as substitutes if you want a slightly different sweetness. Use crushed or small ice rather than one large cube: a mojito relies on quick chilling and even dilution across the whole glass, which large-format cubes are actually worse at here than in a stirred, spirit-forward drink.
Tools You'll Need
A mojito doesn't ask for much: a muddler (wood or stainless steel, either works fine), a highball or Collins glass, a bar spoon for the final stir, and a citrus juicer for the lime. If you make mojitos often, a mint stripper, a small tool that pulls leaves off the stem in one motion, saves real time over picking leaves by hand, but it's a nice-to-have, not a requirement. Keep your mint stored in a glass of water on the counter, like cut flowers, rather than in a sealed bag in the fridge, where it wilts and browns within a day or two.
Variations Worth Trying
A Virgin Mojito just drops the rum; everything else stays the same, and it's a completely legitimate way to serve the drink to anyone who isn't drinking. A Spicy Mojito muddles 2-3 jalapeño slices in with the mint, adding heat that the lime and mint keep from taking over. A Berry Mojito muddles a handful of strawberries or raspberries in alongside the mint for a fruitier, slightly sweeter build. All three use the exact same method; only the muddle changes.
A Bit of History
The mojito traces back to 16th-century Cuba, where an early version known as "El Draque" (named for Sir Francis Drake) mixed raw sugarcane spirit with lime and mint, reportedly used as much for its supposed medicinal properties as for taste. The drink evolved alongside Cuban rum production over the following centuries into the version served today, and it broke through internationally in the 1990s, riding a broader wave of interest in Cuban culture and classic cocktails. It's stayed a fixture on drink menus ever since, in large part because it's genuinely easy to make well at home with almost no special equipment. Its closest cousin is the Daiquiri, Cuba's other great rum-and-lime export, which drops the mint and soda for a shaken, spirit-forward build.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Over-muddling is the top offender, turning a bright drink bitter and grassy. Shaking is the second: a mojito is built in the glass, not shaken, since shaking destroys the soda's carbonation before it even gets poured in. Letting it sit is the third: mojitos don't hold well, and the mint wilts and the soda goes flat within minutes, so serve it as soon as it's built. Get the muddle gentle, the rum clean, and the ice right, and the rest takes care of itself.