Classic Fresh Rum Mojito

No matter which part of the world we are in, whichever club, whichever party, Mojito is the ultimate internationalised cocktail that is hard not to come by. This summertime alcoholic beverage is prepared from white rum, sugarcane juice or sugar syrup, lime juice and mint leaves. The innumerable variations of the traditional Mojito often make it difficult to identify the original drink, the Classic Fresh Rum variant.

One of the biggest proponents of the Classic Fresh Rum Mojito was author Ernest Hemmingway who was a frequent at Havana’s La Bodeguita del Medio. The bar is famous for Hemingway’s signed epigraph on its wall praising their classic fresh rum blend. Though La Bodeguita often claims to be the creators of this enticing cocktail, historical analysis suggests otherwise.

The traditional Mojito dates back to 1586 when Sir Francis Drake, a privateer sponsored by Queen Elizabeth I, landed in Havana to sack the city of its Aztec gold. Down with dysentery and scurvy, the native Latin Americans treated Drake and his crew with a local tonic made from Aguardiente de Cana (sugarcane alcohol), mint leaves and lime juice. The drink not only helped the men recover, but became a popular Cuban cocktail subsequently and was named El Draque, arguably in honour of Sir Drake, who left overwhelmed to get his life back than the gold.

While some presume this story as the origin tale of this fantastic modern cocktail, others believe that the drink was a brainchild of African slaves working in the sugarcane plantations of Cuba during the period. Whichever be the correct retelling, the Draque continued to enjoy its popularity as a trusted medicinal beverage throughout the 19th century and became a mandatory early morning routine for the people of Havana in 1833 during one of the worst cholera epidemics to have ever hit Latin America.

There is a general consensus that switching the sugarcane liquor with fresh white rum was done by Facundo Bacardi Masso, the creator of the legendary Bacardi group of liquors, in the 1850s. It was with the altercation of rum that the age-old Draque became the popular Mojito. However, there are some who feel that the creation of the Mojito cannot be credited to Bacardi or any single person, but was a result of the introduction of Mint Julep by Americans visiting Cuba’s thriving bar-culture between the wars and especially during Prohibition.