How to Make a Mojito at a Dinner Party

Word will get out fast that you're serving Mojitos at your dinner party. It's one thing to drink a Mojito, but it's even better to be a part of making a Mojito. The making of the Mojito is an experience that sets the mood for your dinner party.

Things You'll Need

• Fresh mint leaves, 6 to 8
• Limes
• White or light rum
• Guarapo (sugarcane syrup)
• Club soda
• Bitters
• Crushed ice

Instructions

1. Cut your limes into slices or quarter the lime.

2. Smash 3/4 of the pulp of a lime in the bottom of a Mojito glass along with 5 to 6 of the mint leaves and 3 drops of the bitters. Mash and smash these ingredients until they are extremely well blended. This mixing and mashing is known as "muddling." You are muddling the ingredients to bring out the fragrance and oils that make a Mojito so appealing.

3. Fill the glass with crushed ice until about 3/4 full. The crushed ice goes right in the glass on top of the smashed lime, mint leaves and bitters.

4. Add 2 oz. of the white or light rum right on top of the other ingredients.

5. Use guarapo to fill the rest of the glass leaving about 1/2 inch from the top rim. The guarapo is sugarcane syrup.

6. Top off the glass with club soda.

7. Cover the glass with a cocktail shaker tumbler, shake well and pour the Mojito back into the cocktail glass. Add a stick of sugarcane, fresh mint leaves and a lime wedge to complete the Mojito.

Tips & Warnings

• Use simple syrup, which is a type of very sweet syrup used in tropical type drinks, in place of the guarapo or sugarcane for a Miami Mojito.

• Replace the guarapo with granulated sugar to make a Cuban Mojito.

• Some prefer a lemon-lime soda in place of club soda.