After a nice evening with friends and following their encouragement I have decided to share my quest for good Mojitos with the world. I am not sure when or where my fascination with this tropical drink started, after all I've never been a rum drinker.
Actually I really used to dislike rum, maybe because I learned to make a mean rum and coke by age five, not by choice but because that was my father's drink of choice and he always asked me to fix them for him. Growing up in Puerto Rico you are exposed to rum, you get used to the smell of the sugar cane, driving through Arecibo and Camuy by the Palo Viejo, Ron Llave and Ron Granado distillery, or the small Barrilito destillery in my hometown of Bayamon, or the view of Bacardi in Catano, and the king of all Puerto Rican rums Ron Don Q from Ponce, PR and the Serralles family. Growing up in Puerto Rico you learn to be loyal to the Pina Colada, but even with the large number of Cubans in the island, I never heard of Mojitos.
Even after living in Miami for many years, I never heard of Mojitos until the late 90's at a family gathering, an even then I did not try it, because I didn't like rum!!
I think Mojito's became popular in Miami, with the advent of trendy South Beach, maybe it was the movie The Mambo Kings, maybe it was the Estefan's they made everything trendy and the opened Lario's Cuban Restaurant is South Beach, I am not sure and it really does not matter.
What matters is how, when, and why the Mojito has become my drink of choice, and it all started with a caipirinha, who knew! A good friend introduced me to Caipirinhas, the official cocktail of Brazil, with cachaca, sugar and lime. I loved it, and she mentioned that basically the Caipirinha was the Brazilian version of a Mojito, seriously she said that. In reality, it is not the Brazilian version of the Mojito, but it did peaked my curiosity about the Cuban drink.
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