Drink · 6 min · Amounts not specified
Mojito
Rum, lime, sugar and mint over crushed ice. Slap the mint to wake it rather than muddling it into bitter green shreds.
The sheet · 1 highball · 6 min
mediumWhy tonight. Rum, lime, sugar and mint over crushed ice. Slap the mint to wake it rather than muddling it into bitter green shreds.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- rum
- mint
- lime
- simple syrup
Good if you have them, fine if you do not: soda.
Method
- Mint pressed gently with the lime and sugar — pressed, not shredded. Torn mint goes bitter and turns the drink a murky green.
- 2 oz white rum, then pack the glass with crushed ice.
- Soda to top, then one lift from the bottom to bring the mint up through the glass.
- A large bouquet of mint on top so your nose is in it as you drink. The aroma is doing more work than the leaves in the glass.
Technique coach
What the method is trying to make happen
Sequence, correction, heat and texture, equipment workarounds, scaling, and component reuse are available with this cook sheet.
An educational pour, not a reprint of a licensed spec. No allergen or alcohol-safety claim.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
The technique underneath this
Going wrong while you cook it? Say what it is doing and the triage will tell you what is happening, the smallest move, and the instinct to resist.
Watch the technique behind this one
Third-party video. Opens in a new tab — nothing is embedded and nothing is fetched from a video platform until you click.
Reviewed video matched to this method, not to the cuisine. Opens in a new tab.
- Cocktail structureBasic Cocktails - How To Make A DaiquiriCocktail ChemistryThe plainest sour there is, which makes base-acid-sweet balance easy to taste rather than merely read.197K+ views at the September 2026 review. · Link checked 2026-09-08
- Syrups and citrusHow to make Cocktail Syrups: Simple, Ginger, Honey and Raspberry Vol. 1The Educated BarflySimple, ginger, honey and raspberry syrups in one sitting. The bar prep nobody films.Link checked 2026-09-08
- Cocktail structureHow to make a Whiskey HighballA Bar AboveThe pour that keeps the bubbles. A highball is mostly a handling problem.Link checked 2026-09-08
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- rum
- The widest spirit on the shelf.
- mint
- Loud, cooling, and easily wrecked.
- lime
- Sharper and more floral than lemon, and it fades faster — juice it the same hour you use it.
- simple syrup
- Sugar already dissolved, which is the only form of sugar that works in a cold drink.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares rum, lime, mint
Queen's Park swizzle
Packed crushed ice, mint, a lot of bitters on top. Swizzle until the glass frosts.
Shares rum, lime, simple syrup
Daiquiri
Rum, lime, sugar, shaken hard and served up. It is the best value in cocktails and nothing about it should be frozen or pink.
Shares rum, lime, simple syrup
Jungle Bird
Campari and rum with pineapple, which is the only tiki drink that is genuinely bitter. Pineapple juice foams if you shake it hard, and it should.
Shares mint, lime, simple syrup
Southside
A gin sour with mint in it, sometimes called a Mojito's dry cousin. Slap the mint rather than muddling it to pulp.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.